The Linguistic Problem in Dante: A Gramscian Pathway toward the Modern Vernacular World

By Stefano Selenu B.A., Universit di Bologna, 2003

A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Italian Studies at Brown University

Providence, Rhode Island May 2010

 2010 by Stefano Selenu

This dissertation by Stefano Selenu is accepted in its present form by the Department of Italian Studies as satisfying the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Date _______________

__________________________________ Ronald L. Martinez, Advisor

Recommended to the Graduate Council

Date _______________

__________________________________ Massimo Riva, Reader

Date _______________

__________________________________ Suzanne Stewart-Steinberg, Reader

Date _______________

__________________________________ Joseph A. Buttigieg, Reader

Approved by the Graduate Council

Date _______________

_________________________________ Sheila Bonde, Dean of the Graduate School

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CURRICULUM VITAE

Stefano Selenu was born on April 17, 1978 in Carbonia, Sardinia (Italy). He holds an Italian laurea cum laude in Philosophy from the University of Bologna. His research focuses primarily on the intersections of language, literature, and politics in Italian culture and history, with a comparative approach across class, gender, geographical, and cultural boundaries. His specific interests include Dante and early modern literature; Antonio Gramsci and Marxism; Italian literature and philosophy; theories of history, politics, and language; history of Italian and Sardinian languages and philology. In 2005, his tesi di laurea was awarded the first Antonio Gramsci Prize, which included the publication in the collection Antologia del Premio Gramsci. IX Edizione (Sassari: EDES, 2006. 223-358). This work investigates the question of Sardinian language standardization in connection with both Antonio Gramscis thought on philology, contemporary philosophy of language and romance linguistics. He is currently revising this into a book entitled, Ideas: Un sentiero gramsciano verso la lingua sarda. He has also published several articles on Gramsci and Benedetto Croce. Thanks to a Tuition Fellowship from the Cogut Center for the Humanities at Brown, in 2007 he attended the School of Criticism and Theory at Cornell University. In 2009, he was a recipient of a Mellon grant to attend the Summer Institute in Italian Paleography at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, CA. Furthermore, with the collaboration of the graduate students in Italian Studies at Brown and

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Harvard Universities, in 2008 he founded and co-organized Chiasmi, the first Brown-Harvard Graduate Student Conference in Italian Studies.

PREFACE NOTE In this work, I will refer to Gramscis and Dantes works using the following abbreviations. Gramsci: Q 1, 1. 1 = Quaderni del carcere, Notebook 1, note 1, page 1, with reference to the Italian edition by Valentino Gerratana (1975). Q 29, 1 (1935) = Quaderni del carcere, Notebook 29, note 1, year in which Gramsci wrote the notebok. Q 1, 1. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 1. 100 = Prison Notebook, Notebook 1, note 1, Vol. 1, page 1, with reference to Joseph Buttigiegs English translation. Dante: Inf. 1.105-108 = Divina Commedia: Inferno, canto 1, verses 105-108. Purg. 2.15-18 = Purgatorio, canto 2, verses 15-18. Par. 15.105-108 = Paradiso, canto 15, verses 105-108. VN 30.1 = Vita Nova, ch. 30, paragraph 1. Dve I.xi.3 = De vulgari eloquentia, book 1, ch. 11, paragraph 3. Conv. II.ii.1 = Convivio, book 2, ch. 2, paragraph 1. Mon. I.iii.2 = De Monarchia, book 1, ch. 3, paragraph 2. Ec. 1.3-5 = Ecloghe, first, verses 3-5. Epistle 13.4 = Thirteenth epistle, paragraph 4. Unless otherwise indicated, I will refer to the following editions of Gramscis, Dantes, and Brunetto Latinis works: Gramsci: Quaderni del carcere. Ed. Valentino Gerratana. 4 vols. Torino: Einaudi, 1975. (I will cite this edition when dealing with Notebooks 9-29). Lettere dal carcere. Ed. Antonio A. Santucci. 2 vols. Palermo: Sellerio, 1996. Prison Notebooks. Ed. Joseph Buttigieg. 3 vols. New York: Columbia UP, 1991-2007. (I will cite this edition when dealing with Notebooks 1-8). Letters from Prison. Ed. Frank Rosengarten. 2 vols. New York: Columbia UP, 1994. Dante: Divina Commedia. Ed. Sapegno. 3 vols. Firenze: La Nuova Italia, 1979. The Divine Comedy. Ed. and trans. Robert Durling and Ronald Martinez. 3 vols. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1996-2010 (expected). De vulgari eloquentia. Ed. Pier Vincenzo Mengaldo. Milano-Napoli: Ricciardi 1979. ---. English Trans. Steven Botterill. Cambrige, UK: Cambridge UP, 1996. vi

Monarchia. Opere minori. Ed. Bruno Nardi. Vol. 3.1. Milano: Ricciardi, 1996. ---. English Trans. Prue Shaw. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 1995. Brunetto Latini: Trsor. Ed. Pietro G. Beltrami, Paolo Squillaciotti, Plinio Torri, Sergio Vatteroni. Torino: Einaudi, 2007. The Book of the Treasure. Ed. and trans. Paul Barrette and Spurgeon Baldwin. New YorkLondon: Garland, 1993.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my advisor Ron Martinez, a real teacher, guide, and generous dragomanno; without his help and criticism I would have never reached the awareness of how complex it is to be simple. I thank the members of my committee, Massimo Riva, Suzanne Stewart-Steinberg, and Joseph Buttigieg. They all have been good mentors and readers, who stimulated me to foster this piece of scholarship with their insights and probing questions. Along with them, I would like to thank all those who have contributed to my professional development, among whom, Dedda DeAngelis, Cristina Abbona-Sneider, Caroline Castiglione, Laura Hess, David Kertzer, and Evelyn Lincoln from Brown, Tim Brennan from the University of Minnesota, Eric Cheyfitz from Cornell University, Peter Ives from the University of Winnipeg, Mauro Pala from the University of Cagliari, Francesco Borghesi from the University of Sidney, Barnaba Maj, Andrea Cristiani, and Derek Boothman from the University of Bologna. I benefited from all of them and their work in different ways. I would also like to thank Prof. Teodolinda Barolini from Columbia University for her kind encouragement and Prof. Lino Pertile for hosting me in his course on literature and Fascism at Harvard. Thanks to Giorgio Baratta, who contributed to let me keep the Gramscian pathway firm in this work. I recall our meeting in Cagliari for the foundation of Terra Gramsci, when he asked me: Certo Dante importante, ma Gramsci nel titolo della tesi, vero? Along with Giorgio, I thank the IGS Italia and the Regione Sardegna for supporting my participation at the Third Conference of the IGS held in Sardinia in May 2007. I would also like to thank the Associazione Gramsci in Ales, Salvatore Zucca, and Giorgio Serra viii

for their appreciations of my work, and for stimulating me to continue my studies on Gramsci and language. Parts of this dissertation have been presented at conferences. I thank Kristina Olson for allowing me to present a paper on Dante in the Risorgimento at the 2006 Conference in Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo. Along with her, I thank the participants and attendants at the panel who contributed with helpful comments and feedback. I thank Prof. Dino Cervigni from the University of North Carolina for allowing me to present a paper on Dante at the 2008 AAIS conference in New York and Prof. Christian Moevs from the University of Notre Dame and Prof. Denis Looney from the University of Pittsburg for accepting my paper on Dantes hunt for the illustrious vernacular at the 2009 MLA Convention in Philadelphia. Their comments and feedback, along with those of Prof. Linda Carroll, James Nohrnberg, Bernardo Picich, and other scholars and lovers of Dante seating in the audience (whose names, unfortunately, I do not recall now), helped me to improve my ideas on Dantes hunting metaphors and his dealing with Babel, Adam, the panther, and the veltro. I would also like to thank the Cogut Center for the Humanities and Prof. Michael Steinberg for awarding me a tuition fellowship for attending the School of Criticism and Theory at Cornell University, where I benefited from the teachings of theorists such as Dominick LaCapra, Eric Cheyfitz, Gayatri Spivak, and many others; the Getty Research Institute for awarding me a Mellon Grant to attend the Summer Institute in Italian Paleography at the Getty in Los Angeles, where I benefited from the teachings of Prof. Maddalena Signorini from the University of Rome and the numerous discussions and surfings with the group; the Medieval Studies Group and the Renaissance and Early ix

Modern Studies for awarding me both research and conference travel grants in these years at Brown. I would like to thank all my colleagues with whom I experienced the journey of the PhD; their feedback and questions during the various Italian Studies Colloquia I attended have been both challenging and stimulating. I also thank those who participated in the creation and orgazination of Chiasmi in 2008, in particular my colleagues from Brown and Harvard Universities, Prof. Francesco Erspamer from Harvard University, the Consul General of Italy in Boston, Liborio Stellino, and Prof. Carlo Cipollone, and the various sponsors. I would like to thank Mona Delgado for keeping all the administrative business in order, and Alice for making our departmental environment more enjoyable, in particular in the evenings with friendly chats. Thanks to Mary-Therese, Cecilia, Marina, and Liliana Martinez for treating Monica and me as part of their family. Finally, I thank my family (both nuclear and enlarged) for supporting my libero arbitrio even when the wheel of Fortune has been cruel with us. I am sure that there will be times in which we will have the strength to turn the wheel upside-down and sardonically smile at its injustice. To Monica, who has been so strong to s(o)pport my work and passionately helped me detach dreams from nightmares, I dedicate this dissertation with all my love and gratitude.

TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1. FROM MANZONI TO DANTE? QUESTIONE DELLA LINGUA AND THE COMMUNES IN GRAMSCI 2. GRAMSCIS CONTRAPUNTAL READING OF INFERNO 10
1. An Unfinished Discourse in Chains: Dante, the Risorgimento, and Gramsci 2. Disinterested Study and Philology 3. Inferno 10 4. Before Gramsci: De Sanctis and Croce 5. Gramscis Aesthetics, Dantes Dramatization, and Medeas Veil 6. Counterpoint and Criticism in Gramscis Reading 7. Between Silence and Dialectic: Can Cavalcante speak? 8. Humanism, Heresy, and the National-Cultural: Guidos Disdain and Gramscis History of Intellectuals

1 11 34
38 45 51 55 60 68 73 78

3. LOCUTIONI VULGARIUM GENTIUM PRODESSE TEMPTABIMUS: ON THE ETHICAL AND POLITICAL SENSE OF DANTES NOTION OF VULGARES GENTES 4. AGAINST BABEL, AGAINST DISPERSION: NIMROD AND ADAM, THE PANTHER AND THE VELTRO
1. Nimrod and the Overthrown Hierarchy: Speaking Subalterns and Crying Rulers 2. The Hunter, the Panther, and the Sweet Glory of Poetry 3. Returning to Eden: the Death of Language, Adams Joy, and the Fall of Babel

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117
125 135 145

5. DANTES DE-VULGARIZATION OF THE VULGARE: HEGEMONY, CAESARISM, AND POETRY OF PRAXIS

1. Firenze esercita unegemonia culturale: Cultural Hegemony from Gramsci to Dante 2. Dantes Caesarism and Gramscis Hegemony 3. Geography, Society, and the Ethical Court 4. Illustrious Vernacular, Poetic Justice, and Poetry of Praxis 5. Dantes Poetic Imperialism: a Project for a Future Cultural Hegemony?

152
152 161 165 171 178

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

184

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qoj nqrpJ damwn (Ethos is the human demon) Heraclitus, Fr. 119.

Or dunque sha da sapere che vi son cose, le quali, poich non sono in nostro potere, noi possiamo soltanto conoscere, ma non fare... Altre invece ve ne sono che, trovandosi in nostro potere, noi siamo in grado non solo di conoscere, ma altres di fare; e in tal caso, non il fare ordinato al conoscere, ma anzi questo a quello, poich allora il fine si loperare. Dante, Monarchia I.ii.5.

Croce rimprovera alla filosofia della praxis il suo scientismo, la sua superstizione materialistica, un suo presunto ritorno al medioevo intellettuale. Antonio Gramsci, Q10, 41.i.

...ahi se colpisce locchio della mente quel transito... Giorgio Caproni, Il passaggio dEnea

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INTRODUCTION
The stimulus for investigation must start not with philosophies, but with issues and problems. Edmund Husserl

However the topic is considered, the problem of language has never been simply one problem among others. But never as much as at present has it invaded, as such, the global horizon of the most diverse researches and the most heterogeneous discourses, diverse and heterogeneous in their intention, method, and ideology. 1 The point made by Jacques Derrida in his De la grammatologie well conveys a sense of what, from Richard Rorty onwards, has been called the linguistic turn(s) of the twentieth century.2 That language has been conceived not only as an object among other objects to study, but as a global focus on the humanities and social science is, arguably, related to a growth of awareness that language itself is, as Antonio Gramsci contended, una molteplicit di fatti pi o meno organicamente coerenti e coordinati. 3 In this light, the word language does not only refer to one thing, idea, or concept; rather, it encompasses a multifaceted composition of signs, cultures, contexts, ideas, forces, struggling theories, ideologies, worldviews, and so on. My dissertation focuses on the language question (questione della lingua) in Dante and addresses it not as a single historical event or isolated object in Dantes works, but as
1

Jacques Derrida. Of Grammatology. Trans. Gayatri C. Spivak. Baltimore-London: The Johns Hopkins UP, 1997. 6. 2 See Richard Rorty, ed. The Linguistic Turn. Chicago-London: The U of Chicago P, 1967. Peter Ives argued for a multiplicity of linguistic turns in the humanities and social science. See Peter Ives. Language and Hegemony in Gramsci. London: Pluto, 2004. 3 Q 10, 44. 1330.

a complex web of issues, discourses, and contexts concerning the theoretical problem of language, its history, and its politics. The objective of this dissertation is to elaborate the linguistic problem in Dante as it emerges from a dialogic and reflective reading of Dantes works and Gramscis writings. While the aim of such a study could seem merely an exercise of philological passion for the Florentine poets texts, the objective of interrogating the linguistic problem in Dante through Gramscis writings might also be a stimulus in the readers mind to a variety of criticisms. The ambitious nature of this dissertation is however proportional to the enthusiasm for thinking in a different mode that lies as an unconscious desire of this project. In what sense, does this dissertation search for and tackle the linguistic problem in Dante through a Gramscian pathway? To answer this question, some remarks on the Italian questione della lingua an expression with which my own title inherently plays are needed. The questione della lingua refers to the problem of the constitution and popularization of a national Italian language, two of the most critical cultural-political questions in Italian history. From a theoretical standpoint, considering the expression questione della lingua in its broadest sense, which views the Renaissance debates after Bembos Prose della volgar lingua (1525) up to Manzoni (1785-1873) as only one phase of the linguistic history of Italy, the questione can be traced back to Dantes De vulgari eloquentia (1303-1304). Although left unfinished, Dantes treatise is a major expression of the passage

from the Middle Ages to the modern epoch4 and one that substantially contributed to the late medieval contestation of Latin by vernacular culture. A driving principle of this dissertation is the general view of the De vulgari eloquentia not simply as a book to be studied, analyzed, and commented, but also as a principium discorsi, as the beginning of a discourse on Dante and Gramsci focused on the ethical-political dimension of the multifaceted problem of language. In other words, understanding Dantes treatise is not only the goal of this research, but also the means for achieving an understanding of both Dante and Gramsci. My dissertation includes a challenge to our understanding of the relation between texts and historical time. I will attempt to (de-)localize texts outside the confines of historical epochs. In other words, I wish to challenge the naturalization of the relationship between text and epoch, which is often pre-supposed in contemporary academic labor in the humanities and social science a labor often fractured according to the boundaries of both discipline and historical periodization. When we presuppose that ancient, medieval, early modern, modern, post-modern periods are organized as closed and autonomous sectors of knowledge, historical epochs begin to carry in themselves a negative power of closure, separation, incommunicability, untranslatability, and rupture.5 As a general method for thinking about the language problem I find Italian glottologist Graziadio Isaia Ascolis emphasis on the ambition to spaziar largamente per la storia6 engaging and useful. This does not mean however a blindness to historical, philological, and theoretical accuracy on the contrary.
4 5

I borrow this historiographic expression from Gramsci. See Q 9, 121. 1187. For a theoretical and critical reflection on notions of uncommunicability of culture and originality as rupture see also Timothy Brennan. Wars of Positions: The Cultural Politics of Left and Right. New

Gramsci himself implicitly believed in and applied throughout his writings a broad sense of historical thinking. His method of dealing with history, texts, and the intellectual labor engages both a macro-logical and micro-logical scholarly approach an approach that points to and results in a balance between accounts of large historical frameworks and analyses of those minute details that form and transform molecularly the whole of these frameworks. Taking this molecular approach to issues and problems as a general method for our inquiry, this dissertation consists of a critical journey7 through Dantes and Gramscis writings in my view, the swan songs of the 13th and 20th centuries.8 The bridging pathway between them is the language problem viewed through an ethicalpolitical lens, also suggested in the antepenultimate note of the Prison Notebooks (Q 29, 7). By using this note as the magnetic compass that orients my research, I explore the ethical, political, and historical significance of Dantes conceptualization of a new vernacular language. By focusing on Gramscis writings on Italian intellectual history, the Middle Ages, and Dante, my work suggests a frame for discussing how, at the end of the thirteenth century, Dantes linguistic project opens a way to redefine the social and political position of those whom Dante called vulgares gentes. Although most interpretations of Gramscis thought generally overlook Dantes contribution, placing Dante in the foreground of Gramscis work produces insights both into Gramscis ideas on history, language, and the intellectuals, and into the long-term
York: Columbia UP, 2007. In particular, Humanism, Philology, and Imperialism at pp. 93-125. Quoted in Sebastiano Timpanaro. Sulla linguistica dellOttocento. Bologna: Il Mulino, 2005. 234. 7 Maria Corti. Il viaggio testuale. Torino: Einaudi, 1978. 16.
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historical implications of Dantes work. Thus, I suggest that a dialogic reading of Gramsci and Dante generates new meanings for both Gramsci and Dante studies and foster the discussion of relevant issues in the humanities and social science more generally. The dissertation is organized into two sections. The first, consisting of two chapters, is dedicated to Gramscis reflections on the questione della lingua and the communes, Dante criticism and Italian intellectual history. The second section, distributed over three chapters, investigates the ethical and political implications of Dantes theorization on the vernacular. The first chapter is entitled From Manzoni to Dante? Questione della lingua and the Communes in Gramsci. With the aim of fashioning a fuller understanding of the notion of common in Gramsci, I focus on Gramscis views on the medieval commune and suggest a parallel that links his concept of philosophy of praxis to his ideas on the vernacularization of culture within the thirteenth-century communes.9 Through a close and reflective reading of the Prison Notebooks and the Letters from Prison, I suggest that a modernist approach to Gramscis writings does not help our understanding of either Gramsci or modernity. In fact, reducing Gramscis work to a
8 9

I borrow the expression swan song from Gramsci. Q 6, 64. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 3. 48. Thus far, students of Gramsci have been relatively uninterested in studying the concept of common in Gramscis writings. From this perspective, my study here intersects both Giorgio Barattas recent emphasis on notions such as comune, comunismo, and senso comune in Gramsci and the ongoing research pursued by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri on the political concept of the common. See Giorgio Baratta. Gramsci in contrappunto: Dialoghi col presente. Roma: Carocci, 2007. 163. Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri. Commonwealth. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard UP, 2009. Commonwealth is the third major volume following Empire and Multitude. It is interesting that Hardt and Negri, in their conclusions of Commonwealth, re-consider Dantes notion of love as a practice of the common. Love is able, traversing the city, to generate new forms of conviviality, of living-together, that affirm the autonomy and interaction of singularities in the common. Commonwealth. 380. In the fourth and fifth chapters, I highlight the role of Dantes notion of love in his hunt for the vernacular as it

theory of modern society and culture abstracted from history means to restrict his own political reflection within a dialectical metaphysics of history that hypostatizes historical epochs as distinct, totalizing, and unrelated realms. I suggest that note 7 of Notebook 29, in the context of Gramscis hyper-textual body of writings confronts aesthetic-stylistic views about language and about Dante, and makes possible a re-evaluation of the ethical-political political nature of the De vulgari eloqeuntia. Thus, by engaging a comparative notion of language and history that Gramsci himself points out in his Notebooks, I conclude that the contrast between his historical materialism and Croces idealism can be seen as an implicit re-articulation in modernity of the rivalry in the age of the communes between vernacularization and elitist conservation of culture. In the second chapter, Gramscis Contrapuntal Reading of Inferno10, I discuss Gramscis performance of criticism in the context of his reading of Inferno 10 and insert this performance into a broader constellation of research interests including topics such as the theory of historiography, the formation of Italian intellectual groups, popular literature and folklore, the questione della lingua, and Croces hermeneutics, among others. My general claim is that Gramscis criticism of Inferno 10 results in a process of differentiation that leads to change what once was considered secondary and subordinate into the nucleus of a new ideological and theoretical nexus. Thus, after introducing the historical and existential circumstances that frame Gramscis writings, and closely considering classic interpretations of this canto by Francesco De Sanctis and Benedetto
relates to a search for a cultural hegemony that could allow the overcoming of catastrophic wars and

Croce, I parse the strategies Gramsci employs to re-evaluate Cavalcante de Cavalcanti as the central figure in the canto. In critiquing traditional readings of the canto that consider Cavalcante as a subordinate character with respect to Farinata, Gramsci emphasizes the contrapuntal relationships between the two characters and exposes the limitations of Croces rigid separation of structure and poetry in his discussion of the Comedy. Moreover, by considering Gramscis interest in Canto 10 in association with numerous topics outlined in the research plan of the Prison Notebooks, I suggest a way to read his notes on Inferno 10 in conjunction with those on the communes, protohumanism, and late medieval intellectuals. In these notes, Gramsci parallels the contest between Latin and the vernacular language to the dialectic between a secular-heretical state of mind (like that of the poet Guido Cavalcanti and his father Cavalcante) and the conservative linguistic view of early humanism (such as that of Alberto Mussato, to whom Gramsci refers in his notes). Keeping this framework in mind, and juxtaposing it to Gramscis contention that Dantes De vulgari eloquentia is a national-cultural political act, I raise the question of why Dante decided to write in vernacular language. The subsequent three chapters attempt to answer this question. Chapter Three, entitled Locutioni vulgarium gentium prodesse temptabimus: on the ethical and political sense of Dantes notion of vulgares gentes, considers ways in which the Latin expression vulgares gentes, referring to the speakers whose locutio is addressed in the treatise, may be understood. I do not find that a satisfactory equivalent for the expression exists in modern languages. In particular, I find that Dantes uses of the term vulgare do not correspond
political dispersion.

to common understanding of the term as a synonym for illiterate, lay, or speakers of vernacular. In my view, the defining trait of the term vulgar, as Dante uses it, does not simply relate to notions of literacy, linguistic division, labor distribution, or power relations, but to a complex ethical-political worldview, in which notions of individual will, free choice, and vice are interdependently at stake. In my view, the notion of vulgares gentes (whose locutio Dante wishes to help) is thus an open concept including not only illiterate or lay persons, but also literate, cleric, and ruling people composing Dantes potential audience, whose understanding he wished to enlighten (lucidare) with his treatise. In the fourth chapter, Against Babel, Against Dispersion: Nimrod and Adam, the Panther and the Veltro, I discuss the political implications of Dantes confrontation with Babel. As Giorgio Agamben suggested, Dantes use of the metaphor of the hunt to refer to his own search for the illustrious vernacular may be assessed through juxtaposition with the figure of Nimrod, the mighty hunter against God who planned the construction of the tower of Babel. My contention is that in focusing on the locutio vulgarium gentium Dante needed to confront the myth of Babel as a typological expression of the political dispersion and linguistic confusion prevailing on the contemporary Italian scene. In overturning the power relationships between the architect, Nimrod, and the multitude of workers at the bottom of the social hierarchy, Dantes search for an illustrious vernacular represents an attempt to re-conceive master-servant relations and to regenerate the linguistic and political order. Dantes hope is that, by gathering the multitude, the new order might transcend dispersion and confusion. 8

In the final chapter, Dantes De-Vulgarization of the Vulgare: Hegemony, Cesarism, and Poetry of Praxis I pose the question of whether we can read Dantes search for an illustrious vernacular as the search for a cultural hegemony. In order to answer this question, I draw on the embedded status of the dispersed multitude within the vulgares gentes, and I reconsider Gramscis claim that when the language question is raised it indicates that there is a political need to re-organize the cultural hegemony, that is, to re-establish the relationship between ruling and non-ruling groups. Taking into consideration that, according to most recent scholarship, hegemony can be understood as a political expression of unity in diversity, I propose to read Dantes imperialism as an ideological complex aimed at reaching a cultural hegemony and unifying the dispersed multitudes. In all of his works particularly in the De Monarchia Dante employs the metaphysical principle of unity as a theoretical tool for countering disruption and fragmentation. Accordingly, as Gramsci also suggests in his notes on Dantes political theory, the Emperor can be considered as a power that, by arbitrating forces in conflict, could bring humanity under a common associative will and avoid catastrophic dispersion. In my view, Dantes linguistic project also involves an imperial ideology. Dante emphasizes the unity of the illustrious vernacular by paralleling it with the number one, which is the measure through which all other vernaculars should be evaluated and selected. In re-reading these issues through the notion of hegemony, I explore the ways in which Dante tackles the tensions between notions of unity from above and diversity from below. In this respect, the concept of hegemony gives us a better perspective for understanding these tensions and for understanding Dantes imperialism as an ideological 9

response to the specific political and linguistic context of his age.

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CHAPTER 1 FROM MANZONI TO DANTE? QUESTIONE DELLA LINGUA AND THE COMMUNE IN GRAMSCI

In his body of writings, Gramsci displays a deep interest in the intersections of language, politics, and intellectual history. In a critical climate more likely to accept that his studies in glottology played a significant role in forming his political thought, scholars have recently shown keen interests in Gramscis views of language. 10 After migrating from Sardinia to the mainland in 1911, at the age of 20, Gramsci
10

For Gramsci, language, and linguistics, the bibliography is vast and might include: Derek Boothman. Traducibilit e processi traduttivi. Un caso: A. Gramsci linguista, Perugia: Guerra, 2004; Craig Brandist. Gramsci, Bakhtin, and the Semiotics of Hegemony. New Left Review 216 (March-April 1996): 94-109; Alessandro Carlucci. Molteplicit culturale e processi di unificazione: dialetto, monolinguismo e plurilinguismo nella biografia e negli scritti di Antonio Gramsci. Rivista italiana di dialettologia 29 (2005): 59-110; Antonio Carrannante. Antonio Gramsci e i problemi della lingua italiana. Belfagor, 5 (1973): 544-56; Tullio De Mauro. Alcuni appunti su Gramsci linguista. In Valerio Calzolaio, ed. Gramsci e la modernit. Napoli: CUEN, 1991. 135-144; Il linguaggio dalla natura alla storia. Ancora su Gramsci linguista. In Giorgio Baratta e Guido Liguori, ed. Gramsci da un secolo allaltro. Roma: Editori Riuniti, 1999. 68-79; Stefano Gensini. Linguistica e questione della lingua. Critica Marxista 1 (1980): 152-64; Niels Helsloot. Linguists of All Countries! On Gramscis Premise of Coherence. Journal of Pragmatics 4 (1989): 547-66; Renate Holub. Antonio Gramsci: Beyond Marxism and Postmodernism. London-Nee York: Routledge, 1992; Peter Ives. Gramscis Politics of Language: Engaging the Bakhtin Circle and the Frankfurt School, Toronto: U of Toronto P, 2004 and Language and Hegemony in Gramsci. London-Ann Arbor: Pluto, 2004; Franco Lo Piparo. Lingua, intellettuali, egemonia in Gramsci. Roma-Bari: Laterza, 1979; Studio del linguaggio e teoria gramsciana. Critica Marxista 2.3 (1987): 167-75; Luigi Rosiello. Problemi e orientamenti linguistici negli scritti di A. Gramsci. Quaderni dellistituto di glottologia 2 (1957): 39-57; Problemi linguistici negli scritti di Gramsci. In Pietro Rossi, ed. Gramsci e la cultura contemporanea. (Atti del convegno internazionale di studi gramsciani tenuto a Cagliari il 23-27 aprile 1967). Vol. 2. Roma: Editori Riuniti Istituto Gramsci, 1970. 347-67; La componente linguistica dello storicismo gramsciano. In Alberto Caracciolo e Gianni Scalia, ed. La citt futura: Saggi sulla figura e il pensiero di Antonio Gramsci. Milano: Feltrinelli, 1959. 299-327; Linguistica e marxismo nel pensiero di Antonio Gramsci. Historiographia Linguistica 3 (1982): 431-452, republished in Paolo Ramat, Hans J. Niederehe, and Konrad Koerner, ed. The History of Linguistics in Italy. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1986. 237-258; Leonardo Salamini. Gramsci and Marxist Sociology of Language. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 32 (1981): 27-44; Stefano Selenu. Ideas: un sentiero gramsciano verso la lingua sarda. Sassari: EDES, forthcoming; Grammatica, logica e storia in Antonio Gramsci. In Mauro Pala, ed. Americanismi: sulla ricezione del pensiero di Gramsci in America. Cagliari: CUEC, 2009. 195-212; Ives and Gramsci in Dialogue: Vernacular Subalternity, Cultural Interferences, and the WordThing Interdependence. Rethinking Marxism 21.3 (2009): 344-54; Elaborando le tracce della storia. Linguaggio, metafora e alterit in Antonio Gramsci. In Barnaba Maj and Rossana Lista, ed. Sulla traccia di Michel de Certeau. Discipline Filosofiche 1 (2008): 115-33.

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enrolled at the University of Torino to study literature and linguistics. Among his professors, linguist Matteo Bartoli, philosopher Annibale Pastore, and Dante scholar Umberto Cosmo played a central role to form his criticism of Crocean idealism at the period, the hegemonic cultural paradigm in Italy. 11 In particular his thesis advisor, Bartoli, shaped Gramscis views on language and linguistics. Influenced by, but not subordinated to Croces aesthetic view of language, Bartoli, by developing a radical critique of positivism in light of a more geographic and historicist approach to linguistic facts, founded a new approach to linguistics, which he called neolinguistica in open opposition to the neogrammarian paradigm. 12 As many places of his texts show, Gramsci was particularly indebted to Bartolis teachings.13 As Gramsci reports in his letter to his sister in law, Tania Schucht, dated March 19, 1927, Bartoli was convinced that his student was the archangel destined to put to definitive rout the neogrammarians.14 Part of the prison writings is certainly devoted to fulfilling Bartolis wish, as also witnessed by the first letter from prison in which the prisoner requested that his landlady, Clara Passarge, provide him with a German grammar textbook, Matteo Bartolis Breviario di neolinguistica, and Dantes Comedy.
11

For a more articulate analysis about the influence of Bartoli and Pastore on Gramsci, see Stefano Selenu Grammatica, logica e storia in Antonio Gramsci. In Mauro Pala, ed. Americanismi: Sulla ricezione del pensiero di Gramsci in America. 195-212. 12 On Matteo Bartoli, see Tullio De Mauro. Idee e ricerche linguistiche nella cultura italiana. Bologna: Il Mulino, 1980. 105-113. Gramsci highlighted Bartolis distance from Croce in the Prison Notebook as follows: I do not perceive any direct relationship of dependence between Bartolis method and Croces theories; Bartolis relationship is with historicism in general, not with a particular form of historicism. Bartolis originality consists precisely in this: that he took linguistics, narrowly conceived as a natural science, and transformed it into a historical science rooted in space and time and not in the physiology of the vocal apparatus. Q 3, 74. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 2. 71. Emphasis mine. 13 Bartolis teaching are in part recorded in the Appunti di glottologia Gramsci wrote as a teaching assistant for Bartolis course of glottology in 1912-1913. Among Bartolis other students one can at least recall linguist and Dante scholar Benvenuto Terracini.

12

Composed of both pre-prison writings and those from prison, Gramscis work is complex, fragmented, and highly stratified. 15 As Joseph Buttigieg emphasized with regard to the Prison Notebooks, the fragmentary character of the notebooks is due, at least in part, to the philological method governing their composition. Philology requires minute attention to detail, it seeks to ascertain the specificity of the particular. Many of the items that make up the notebooks do precisely this they record history in its infinite variety and multiplicity. 16 Therefore, it is only by going to and through the complete text of the notebooks that one can gain a thorough appreciation of what it means to place the accent on history in its infinite variety and multiplicity.17 From this viewpoint, any attempt to create an imagined text fully grounded in and systematically directed to modern events and perspectives, although fascinating, is problematic. Indeed, such an approach would inevitably close the constitutive openness and unresolved character of Gramscis writings into one resolving and totalizing historiographical perspective. The unresolved and uncentered character of Gramscis writing and thinking style is linked to both the number of topics he planned to research and the vast articulations through which he executed his research projects. 18 Even simply skimming his fragmentary body of writings, we can have a sense of Gramscis predilection and
14 15

Gramsci. Letters from Prison. Ed. Rosengarten. Vol. 1. 84. Pre-prison writings include school materials and university writings, political documents, numerous journalistic pieces, theater reviews and critical essays, while the writings from prison are composed of numerous letters and 29 notebooks. 16 Joseph Buttigieg. Introduction. In Antonio Gramsci. Prison Notebooks. Vol. 1. New York: Columbia UP, 1992. 63. 17 Ibid. 18 I borrow the expression from a passage of Isaia Graziadio Ascoli quoted in Sebastiano Timpanaro. Sulla linguistica dellOttocento. Bologna: Il Mulino, 2005. 234.

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ambition to spaziar largamente per la storia.19 A thorough understanding of Gramscis writings is complicated by the fact that an open and unresolved hyper-text lies at the core of his texts. At different moments of his life in prison, Gramsci formulated diverse interrelated plans to shape his writing and research activity, which results in a highly stratified interconnected body of texts. Given this textual interconnectedness the diachronic links and shifts in his writings function as semantic molecules to be detected, explored, and carefully discussed.20 From this general perspective, in this chapter, I will particularly focus on a shift Gramsci appears to work out in his notes on the questione della lingua. While in his early letters and notes, Gramsci takes Manzoni and Ascoli as pivotal points of reference for discussing the questione della lingua, in the final Notebook (Q29) written in 1935, he never mentions them and re-conceives the questione by focusing on Dantes De vulgari eloquentia.21 If we also keep into consideration that Notebook 29 has generally taken as
19

For analytical discussions on Gramscis research plans see Gianni Francioni. Lofficina gramsciana: Ipotesi sulla struttura dei Quaderni del carcere. Napoli: Bibliopolis, 1984 and Fabio Frosini. Gramsci e la filosofia: Saggio sui Quaderni del carcere. Roma: Carocci, 2003. 20 I borrow the metaphor of molecule from Gramsci himself, when he calls for a molecular study of Italian writings from the Middle Ages to understand the process of intellectual formation of the bourgeoisie, whose historical development would reach its high point in the communes but would subsequently break up and dissolve. One could do a similar study for the 1750-1850 period, which saw the formation of a new bourgeoisie that culminated in the Risorgimento. Q 8, 3. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 3. 234. Gramsci also uses the expression molecular to refer to the way new social questions and groups historically form. For Gramsci, they do not simply form after explosive events, but through a preliminary an extremely minute, molecular process of exhaustive, capillary analysis. The documentation it requires consists of an enormous number of books, pamphlets, newspaper and journal articles, conversations and oral debates endlessly repeated; in their gigantic ensemble, they represent the intense activity that gives birth to a collective will with a certain degree of homogeneity the degree of homogeneity that is necessary and sufficient to generate an action that is coordinated and simultaneous in the time and geographical space in which the historical event takes place. Q 8, 195. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 3. 346. 21 The last time Gramsci mentions Manzoni in the Prison Notebooks is in Q 23, 56, written in 1934. In Q 29 (written in 1935), Gramsci only mentions the Manzoniani e classicisti in order to point out that they had un tipo di lingua da far prevalere. The passage following this statement seems to weaken the centrality usually attributed to nineteenth-century debates. In fact, for Gramsci non giusto dire che queste discussioni siano state inutili e non abbiano lasciato tracce nella cultura moderna, anche se non molto grandi. Emphasis mine. Gramscis final remark anche se non molto grandi indicates that the

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crucial for understanding Gramscis linguistic thought, the absence of Manzoni and Ascoli and the re-focusing on Dante appears worth discussing. How should we consider this shift? Is it a fortuitous gesture of erudition or a symptomatic clue leading to a deeper level of interpretation? Though difficult to be answered in definitive terms, this question invites us to carry a more skeptical and careful attitude in dealing with the questione della lingua in Gramsci. It is not my intention to deny the relevance of Ascolis critiques of Manzoni for Gramscis thought. On the contrary, it is exactly by following Gramscis hints to approach the questione by discussing Manzoni and Ascolis debate that his reconsideration of the political value of Dantes De vulgari eloquentia in the antepenultimate note of the Prison Notebooks becomes even more relevant and rich with hermeneutic implications. In other words, if we want to better understand Gramscis own politics of language and his critique of Manzoni, Gramscis notes on Dante and the late Middle Ages cannot be disregarded. In the first note of the Prison Notebooks, Gramsci outlines a research plan including sixteen topics, the twelfth of which concerns La questione della lingua in Italia: Manzoni e Ascoli. Coherently with this plan we find several passages in the Prison Notebooks in which Gramsci focuses on Manzonis politics of language. 22 Note 40 of the special Notebook 23, written in 1934, is particularly helpful to address the ways Gramsci conceived Manzonis proposal and Ascolis critiques of it.
debates on Manzonism in the period around 1935 were not as central as Gramsci scholars recognize today. 22 See Q 1, 0 (i.e. the annotation including the study plan at the beginning of the Prison Notebooks) and 73; Q 21, 5 (p. 2118); Q 23, 40. See also Gramscis article La lingua unica e lEsperanto published on February 1918 in Il grido del popolo. Gramsci. La citt futura (1917-1918). Ed. Sergio Caprioglio. Torino: Einaudi, 1982. 668-73.

15

Il Bellonci Gramsci argues scrive contro laffermazione del Crmieux: Sino al cinquecento le forme linguistiche scendono dallalto, dal seicento in poi salgono dal basso. Sproposito madornale, per superficialit e per assenza di critica e di capacit di distinguere. Poich proprio fino al Cinquecento Firenze esercita unegemonia culturale, connessa alla sua egemonia commerciale e finanziaria (papa Bonifacio VIII diceva che i fiorentini erano il quinto elemento del mondo) e c uno sviluppo linguistico unitario dal basso, dal popolo alle persone colte, sviluppo rinforzato dai grandi scrittori fiorentini e toscani. Dopo la decadenza di Firenze, litaliano diventa sempre pi la lingua di una casta chiusa, senza contatto vivo con una parlata storica. Non questa forse la quistione posta dal Manzoni, di ritornare a unegemonia fiorentina con mezzi statali, ribattuta dallAscoli, che pi storicista, non crede alle egemonie [culturali] per decreto, non sorrette cio da una funzione nazionale pi profonda e necessaria? 23 As this passage shows, Manzonis proposal to spread the Tuscan idiom to the entire national territory is based upon a specific conception of the historical development of Italian vernaculars. For Gramsci, Manzonis idea of re-affirming Florentine hegemony through the power of the State is not a continuation of the type of cultural hegemony from below existing in Florence in the Duecento and Trecento. Thus, a brief discussion on the way Manzoni perceived Dantes De vulgari eloquentia can help us to better view both Gramscis contentions in Q29, 7 and his critiques of Manzoni in other notes. In his proposal for the unification of the Italian language sent to the Minister of Education Emilio Broglio in 1868 (seven years after Italian unification), Manzoni argued that, given that the canonical works of Italian literature were written in Tuscan idiom, the model for the unified national language should have been Tuscan. Consequently, all teachers of Italian, for Manzoni, had to spend a period in Florence to acquire the language of Italians, which would have been then taught and spread through teacherss
23

Q 23, 40. 2237. This note replicates what Gramsci already wrote in 1929-1930 in Q 1, 73.

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labor in the public schools.24 Five years later, Italian linguist Graziadio Isaia Ascoli replied critically to Manzonis views with a brief piece in the Proemio of the Archivio Glottologico Italiano (1873). In his essay, Ascoli highlighted that Manzonis politics of language was grounded in an erroneous understanding of the Italian linguistic situation and argued that it was based on an unsubstantiated analogy between the Italian case and the French and German ones. According to Ascoli, the unification of the French language was strictly connected to the presence in France of a centralizing capital, which helped to produce and spread through national territory a unified language forged on the Parisian model. It is however difficult Ascoli claimed to find a similar example in Italy, since no Italian city had such a centralizing power as the one Paris historically retained in France. Now, given the complexity of the debates on the Italian language unification during the Risorgimento and its aftermath, why did Manzoni not mention Dantes De vulgari eloquentia in his report sent to Minister Broglio? In a letter to Ruggero Bonghi dated 1868, Manzoni explained why. In his letter, by diverging from a long tradition beginning with Trissinos interpretation in the sixteenth century and reaching the Risorgimento, Manzoni claims that Dantes De vulgari eloquentia did not deal with the problem of establishing a notion of national language. In fact, the central topic of the treatise was, according to Manzoni, the language of poetry, or better, a specific genre of poetry.25 To support this general idea, Manzoni provides various reasons, among which a crucial one is the idea that Dante never uses the term
24

Alessandro Manzoni. Dellunit della lingua e dei mezzi per diffonderla. Relazione al ministro della Pubblica Istruzione proposta da Alessandro Manzoni agli amici colleghi Bonghi, Carcano ed accettato da Caro. In Scritti linguistici. Ed. Ferruccio Monterosso. Milano: Edizioni Paoline, 1972. 183-209.

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lingua in his treatise. Manzonis argumentative strategy needs scrutiny. Indeed, from a textual viewpoint, Dante actually used the term lingua at least twice in Dve I.x.6 uses that, however, do not necessarily confute Manzonis point. Yet, if we also look at Convivio Dantes philosophical treatise in the vernacular written at about the same time as the De vulgari eloquentia we find that the term lingua occurs in contexts where issues of national identity and culture are at stake.26 In this respect, a comparative gaze through Dantes works undermines Manzonis argument. Next, it is significant that in his letter Manzoni mentions only textual excerpts from the second book of the De vulgari eloquentia. As readers of the treatise know, it is in the context of the first book that we find Dantes discussion on the illustrious vernacular of Italy, while it is in the second book that Dantes discourse focuses mostly on stylistic and poetic issues. From this angle, it is plausible to suppose that Manzonis claim concerning Dantes intention to deal with poetry, and not with the common language of Italy, depends on his exclusive focus on the second book of the treatise. It would be a simple mistake to believe that this aesthetic-stylistic view of Dante is peculiar to Manzoni. Rather, this view is, arguably, the most common one and, needless to say, it greatly affected many readings of both the De vulgari eloquentia and the Comedy. In this respect, while Manzonis silence on the first book is symptomatic, Benedetto Croces quasi-indifference to Dantes treatise is even more remarkable. As linguist Antonino Pagliaro highlighted, Croce himself in the historical section of the
25

Alessandro Manzoni. Lettera intorno al libro De vulgari eloquio di Dante Alighieri. In Scritti Linguistici. Ed. Ferruccio Monterosso. Milano: Edizioni Paoline, 1972. 240. Translation mine. 26 For instance, Dante used the expression lingua Italica in Conv. I.ix to distinguish Italian literates from

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Aesthetics recalls [the De vulgari eloquentia], [] only for the definition of the noun as a sign (rationale signum et sensuale).27 Given the hegemonic power of Croces idealism on ideas of literature, philosophy, and history in 20 th century Italy and, to a lesser extent, Europe,28 Croces silence cannot have been without effect on how Dantes treatise was received and interpreted in the last century. This silence, I suspect, is connected to Croces theory of language as identical to art, for both of them are expressions of the individual subject. 29 Among the interpretations of Dante influenced by Croce is that of Giulio Bertoni, whose reading is particularly relevant for my argument. According to Bertoni, la verit che Dante, difendendo il volgare, difende il solo modo, nel quale gli concesso di poetare. Pi che la forza degli argomenti addotti in favore del volgare, Dante sente unaltra forza: e, cio, che egli non pu non iscrivere in volgare. Tanto vero che la sua migliore difesa della nuova lingua si risolve in un volo di poesia, quando paragona il volgare al nuove sole che sorger laddove lusato tramonter. La discriminazione di questa nota caratteristica, lo studio e lesame delle opere considerate da questo punto di vista spettano allEstetica, che dunque Linguistica.30 Gramsci never hid his sarcastic and scornful criticisms of such interpretations. One should write a severe critique of Bertoni as a linguist for the positions he has taken recently in the Manualetto di linguistica not only has Bertoni failed to understand Bartoli, he has also failed to understand Croces aesthetics in the sense that he has been unable to derive from Crocean aesthetics rules for the research
non-Italian ones. Lo stesso Croce nella parte storica dellEstetica non ricorda (4a ed., p. 206 sg.), ma lo fa a titolo di onore, se non la definizione della parola come segno (rationale signum et sensuale). Antonino Pagliaro. I primissima signa nella dottrina linguistica di Dante. Quaderni di Roma 1 (1947), republished in Nuovi saggi di critica semantica. Messina-Firenze: DAnna, 1971. 218. Translation mine. 28 See for instance, for Dante and linguistic studies, the deep influence of Croce on Karl Vossler in Germany. 29 See Benedetto Croce. Estetica come scienza dellespressione e linguistica generale. Bari: Laterza, 1928. 30 Giulio Bertoni. Principi generali. In Giulio Bertoni and Matteo G. Bartoli. Breviario di neolinguistica. Modena: Societ Tipografica Modenese (Soliani), 1925. 23. Emphasis mine. Other examples of the aesthetic hermeneutic trend might include Augusto Simonini. La questione della lingua e il suo fondamento estetico. Bologna: Calderini, 1969 and Maurizio Vitale. La questione della lingua. Palumbo, 1967.
27

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and construction of the science of language. He has done nothing but paraphrase, exalt, and wax eloquent about certain impressions; he is essentially a positivist who swoons at the sight of idealism because it is more fashionable and provides the occasion for flights of rhetoric.31 Now, given Manzonis failure to see the political implications of Dantes discourse on vernacular eloquence and Croces indifference to the treatise, we have a better viewpoint from which evaluating Gramscis contentions in Q29, 7. For Gramsci, pare chiaro che il De Vulgari Eloquio di Dante sia da considerare come essenzialmente un atto di politica culturale-nazionale (nel senso che nazionale aveva in quel tempo e in Dante), come un aspetto della lotta politica stata sempre quella che viene chiamata la questione della lingua che da questo punto di vista diventa interessante da studiare. Essa stata una reazione degli intellettuali allo sfacelo dellunit politica che esist in Italia sotto il nome di equilibrio degli Stati italiani, allo sfacelo e alla disintegrazione delle classi economiche e politiche che si erano venute formando dopo il Mille coi Comuni e rappresenta il tentativo, che in parte notevole pu dirsi riuscito, di conservare e anzi di rafforzare un ceto intellettuale unitario, la cui esistenza doveva avere non piccolo significato nel Settecento e Ottocento (nel Risorgimento). Il libretto di Dante ha anchesso non piccolo significato per il tempo in cui fu scritto; non solo di fatto, ma elevando il fatto a teoria, gli intellettuali italiani del periodo pi rigoglioso dei Comuni, rompono col latino e giustificano il volgare, esaltandolo contro il mandarinismo latineggiante, nello stesso tempo in cui il volgare ha cos grandi manifestazioni artistiche. Che il tentativo di Dante abbia avuto enorme importanza innovatrice, si vede pi tardi col ritorno del latino a lingua delle persone colte (e qui pu innestarsi la quistione del doppio aspetto dellUmanesimo e del Rinascimento, che furono essenzialmente reazionari dal punto di vista nazionale-popolare e progressivi come espressione dello sviluppo culturale dei gruppi intellettuali italiani e europei). 32 As Gramsci suggests in this note, intellectuals such as Dante, by elevating fact into theory, realized that the cultural manifestations in the vernacular represented a historical discontinuity and expressed it by detaching them from what Gramsci calls mandarinismo latineggiante. In this respect, Dantes treatise can be considered an
31

Q 3, 74. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 2. 70-71. The title Manualetto di neolinguistica refers to Bartoli and Bertonis Breviario di neolinguistica.

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intellectual-political attempt to restore the equilibrium among the Italian states an equilibrium lost after the break-up of the Roman Empire. Therefore, for Gramsci, Dantes treatise not only entails a discourse on poetry and poetic style, but is rich with historical and ethical-political implications. To have a fuller understanding of Gramscis re-evaluation of Dantes treatise from a political standpoint, it is worth exploring the ways Gramsci conceptualizes the age of the communes, i.e. the historical context in which Dante elaborated his ideas on the vernacular. 33 As is well known, in modern Italian history, the Risorgimento is a crucial moment in which the modern myth of Dante was fostered and enforced. The first note of Notebook 19 sheds light on Gramscis awareness that a complex series of studies, both on the nineteenth century and the preceding history spanning a long temporal arch from the Roman Empire to 1870, is needed to understand the Italian Risorgimento. Indeed, among the various topics to be researched, Gramsci includes: the meaning of the word Italy; the role of Caesar for the development of the Roman Empire; the period of the Communes and the formation of new urban social groups; the et del mercantilismo e delle monarchie assolute and the influences exerted in Italy by foreign countries. By adopting such a wide historiographical perspective, 34 Gramsci was persuaded, on the one hand, to reach a better focus on the cultural elements that played a pivotal role in the
32 33

Q 29, 7. Emphasis mine. It is to notice that the studies on Gramscis reflections on the Middle Ages are rare. See at least Massimo Montanari Gramsci e il Medioevo. In Giuseppe Vacca and Marina Litri, eds. Gramsci e il Novecento. Vol. 2. Roma: Carocci, 1999. 79-87. 34 Many other notes offer further evidence to Gramscis long-range historiographical perspective. In the Appunti di glottologia (1912-1913), several parts devote attention to Roman history and the ways the history of Roman Empire, plays a central role to explain the history of languages in Western and Eastern Europe.

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Risorgimento struggles35 and, on the other, to write a series of essays for a specific audience (unidentified in the note), col fine di distruggere concezioni antiquate, scolastiche, retoriche, assorbite passivamente per le idee diffuse in un dato ambiente di cultura popolaresca, per suscitare quindi un interesse scientifico per le quistioni trattate, che perci saranno presentate come viventi e operanti anche nel presente, come forze in movimento, sempre attuali. 36 Among the various topics to be studied, Gramsci indicates the middle ages identified symptomatically as the age of the communes. It is curious that the approximately ten-century-long epoch of the Middle Ages is shortened to the age of the communes, which covers about three centuries. As Massimo Montanari also
35

In Q19, 1, Gramsci envisions una doppia serie di ricerche. Una sullet del Risorgimento e una seconda sulla precedente storia che ha avuto luogo nella penisola italiana, in quanto ha creato elementi culturali che hanno avuto una ripercussione nellet del Risorgimento (ripercussione positiva e negativa) e continuano a operare (sia pure come dati ideologici di propaganda) anche nella vita nazionale italiana, cos come stata formata dal Risorgimento. Questa seconda serie dovrebbe essere una raccolta di saggi su quelle epoche della storia europea e mondiale che hanno avuto un riflesso nella penisola. Per esempio: 1) I diversi significati che ha avuto la parola Italia nei diversi tempi, prendendo lo spunto dal noto saggio del prof. Carlo Cipolla (che dovrebbe essere completato e aggiornato). 2) Il periodo di storia romana che segna il passaggio dalla Repubblica allImpero, in quanto crea la cornice generale di alcune tendenze ideologiche della futura nazione italiana. Non pare si sia compreso che proprio Cesare ed Augusto in realt modificano radicalmente la posizione relativa di Roma e della penisola nellequilibrio del mondo classico, togliendo allItalia legemonia territoriale e trasferendo la funzione egemonica a una classe imperiale cio supernazionale. Se vero che Cesare continua e conclude il movimento democratico dei Gracchi, di Mario, di Catilina, anche vero che Cesare vince, in quanto il problema, che per i Gracchi, per Mario, per Catilina si poneva come problema da risolversi nella penisola, a Roma, per Cesare si pone nella cornice di tutto limpero, di cui la penisola una parte e Roma la capitale burocratica; e ci anche solo fino a un certo punto. Questo nesso storico della massima importanza per la storia della penisola e di Roma, poich linizio del processo di snazionalizzazione di Roma e della penisola e del suo diventare un terreno cosmopolitico. Laristocrazia romana, che aveva, nei modi e coi mezzi adeguati ai tempi, unificato la penisola e creato una base di sviluppo nazionale, soverchiata dalle forze imperiali e dai problemi che essa stessa ha suscitato: il nodo storico-politico viene sciolto da Cesare con la spada e si inizia unepoca nuova, in cui lOriente ha un peso talmente grande che finisce per soverchiare lOccidente e portare a una frattura tra le due parti dellImpero. 3) Medioevo o et dei Comuni, in cui si costituiscono molecolarmente i nuovi gruppi sociali cittadini, senza che il processo raggiunga la fase pi alta di maturazione come in Francia, in Ispagna, ecc. 4) Et del mercantilismo e delle monarchie assolute, che appunto in Italia ha manifestazioni di scarsa portata nazionale, perch la penisola sotto linflusso straniero, mentre nelle grandi nazioni europee i nuovi gruppi sociali cittadini, inserendosi potentemente nella struttura statale a tendenza unitaria, rinvigoriscono la struttura stessa e lunitarismo, introducono un nuovo equilibrio nelle forze sociali e si creano le condizioni di uno sviluppo rapidamente progressivo. Q 19, 1. 19591960. In this note, Gramsci re-writes different insights of Q 9, 89. 36 Q 19, 1.

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emphasized, Gramscis use of the term Middle Ages corresponds to the Medioevo dei comuni and the two terms of Middle Ages and commune are often used as synonyms. 37 The Duecento is the historical moment in which feudal society began its decline, leaving European countries to diverse processes of nation-state formation. Gramsci conceives the communes in this transitory age as germinal state formations, where new urban social groups were formed, 38 animating un rinnovamento storico effettivo e radicale.39 Yet, in Italy this movement did not reach the highest phase of development as it did in France and Spain, where the nation-state was formed earlier. To characterize the germinal stage of the communes a stage not led by ideals of national unity, but by wars among classes Gramsci used the term economic-corporativist (which he generally employs in opposition to the term of Crocean origins, ethical-political).40 In other words, la funzione storica dei Comuni e della prima borghesia italiana [...] fu disgregatrice dellunit esistente, senza sapere o poter sostituire una nuova propria unit: il problema dellunit territoriale non fu neanche posto o sospettato e questa fioritura borghese non ebbe seguito: fu interrotta dalle invasioni straniere. 41 Though the communes did not lead toward the formation of a modern nationstate, they are an important historical moment given that they mark the convergence of three changes: the closed feudal system began its decline, 42 new forms of democratic
37

Massimo Montanari. Gramsci e il Medioevo. In Vacca and Litri, eds. Gramsci e il Novecento. Vol. 2. 85. 38 Q 19, 1 and Q 9, 89. 39 Q 15, 48. 1809. 40 See Q 5, 31. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 2. 295-6. 41 Ibid. Ed. Gerratana. 568. 42 On this point, see Q 5, 147, entitled Funzione cosmopolita degli intellettuali italiani. Gramsci notes: On the fact that the bourgeoisie of the communes was unable to go beyond the corporative phase and hence cannot be said to have created a state, whereas the church and the empire were really the state:

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participation in political life were generated, and intellectual movements closer to the people took place.43 This is why the problem of understanding the actual historical function of the Communes is for Gramsci a very interesting problem from the point of view of historical materialism that can be connected to the question of the international function of Italian intellectuals.44 In this respect, it is worth recalling a letter to Gramscis sister in law, Tania Schucht, dated September 7, 1931. In this letter Gramsci, when he claims that he greatly amplifies the notion of intellectual, clarifies the intersections between his research on the Communes and the history of the intellectuals: My study also leads to certain definitions of the concept of the State that is usually understood as a political Society (or dictatorship, or coercive apparatus []) and not as a balance between the political Society and the civil Society (or the hegemony of a social group over the entire national society []) and it is within the civil society that the intellectuals operate (Ben. Croce, for example, is a sort of lay pope and he is a very effective instrument of hegemony []). In my opinion, this conception of the function of the intellectuals helps to cast light on the reason or one of the reasons for the fall of the medieval Communes, that is, of the government of an economic class that was unable to create its own category of intellectuals ad thus exercize hegemony and not simply dictatorship; the character of Italian intellectuals was not national-popular but rather cosmopolitan, patterned after the Church []. The Communes therefore were a syndicalist-state, which never went beyond this place to become an integral State, as had pointed out in vain by Machiavelli, who through the organization of the army wanted to establish the citys hegemony over the countryside, and so he can be called the first Italian Jacobin (the second was Carlo Cattaneo []). It follows that the Renaissance must be considered a reactionary and repressive movement when compared to the development of the Communes, etc. I present you these comments to convince you that every period of history that has unfolded in Italy, from the Roman Empire to the Risorgimento, must be viewed from this monographic standpoint.45
before writing anything on this, it is necessary to read Gioacchino Volpe Il Medio Evo. Q 5, 147. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 2. 395. 43 See Q 3, 16. As the movement of emancipation gained ground, however, going beyond the boudnaries and structures of these societies, the people started demanding and obtaining participation in the major public offices. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 2. 23. 44 Q 5, 31. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 2. 295. 45 Gramsci. Letters from Prison. Ed. Rosengarten. Vol. 2. 67. Emphasis mine.

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As this letter indicates, for Gramsci the commune can be contrasted to the regressive movement of the Renaissance a point also recalled in Q 29, 7. Between the lines of this letter lies an implicit parallel 46 between the communes and the intellectual movement of the Reformation in Northen Europe a parallel developed in Q8, 145 (1931-1932). Yet, differently from the relationship of contiguity between Reformation and Renaissance in Northern Europe, the relationship between the communes and the Renaissance in Italy was historically discontinuous. Indeed, In Italy from the viewpoint of popular participation in public life there was a historical hiatus between the movement of the communes [-reformation-] and the Renaissance movement.47 In Italy the movements of the communes were in fact stopped by the growth of Quattrocento humanism, when intellectuals return to Latin as the language of high culture.
46

In Gramscis view, it should be pointed out tha the whole of language is a series of elliptical comparisons and that history is and implicit comparison between the past and the present (historical actuality). Q 7, 42. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 3. 191-2. See also Q 10, II, 38 and 41.vi. From an interdiscursive viewpoint, it is worth to notice that the notion of ellipsis is the crucial concept Luigi Sicardi used in his La lingua italiana in Dante to prove his new interpretation of Guidos disdain in Inf. 10. Gramsci cited this essay in the notes on Canto ten and praises it in other notes concerning linguistics, as I will show in the next chapter. According to Sicardi, cosa non dubbia, n del tutto inosservata da nostri pi antichi e accurati grammatici, che la nostra lingua consentiva agli scrittori de primi secoli, come a perdurarvi le tracce sporadiche del latino, di omettere talvolta preposizioni o i segnacasi dinanzi a sostantivi o a pronomi. [...] Ragion per cui non soltanto preposizioni e segnacasi venivan non di rado omessi e non pi spesso nella poesia che nella prosa, ma taciuta ogni altra parola del discorso che poteva venir soppressa e che era consentito agli scrittori si potesse di leggieri sottindendere dato il senso generale del periodo che tutto riusciva a chiarire. Dico la figura dellellissi. Ragione questa delluso, in forza del quale era del tutto ovvio in que secoli di coglier facilmente il senso dellintero discorso; dove a noi ora, essendo cos variato, cos in questo come in tante altre cose, luso della nostra lingua sia parlata che scritta, e tanto sintatticamente impoverito, non ci riesce talvolta, n prima n poi, di coglierlo quel senso, e quindi dintendere non di rado o allingrosso quegli antichi. Ora la mancanza p. es. dun segnacaso, quando pure il senso del discorso ce ne facesse accorti e non sempre avviene non si giudicherebbe che un vero e proprio errore materiale, mai proposito deliberato, come allora in certi casi era uso. Enrico Sicardi, La lingua italiana di Dante. Roma: Optima, 1928. 2122.

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Gramsci attributes a sense of exemplarity to the communes. This is particularly evident in those notes in which he makes various parallels between past and present in order to reach a better understanding of contemporary events. From this comparative perspective between past and present, Gramscis interests in the late Middle Ages, Dante, and the Italian communes are also relevant to better understanding Gramscis view of communism in modernity and his views on the cultural-political problems of his own age.48 Three instances give us evidence on this point. First, in critiquing Croces intellectual detachment from politics Gramsci makes a parallel between the modern idealist separation of intellectual and political activity and the conceptual distinction between potere temporale and potere spirituale (temporal and spiritual powers) in the late Middle Ages. Second, Gramsci used the Sicilian Vespers as an instance of explosive revolution, to which he counteposes a concept of revolution as a molecular elaboration of cultural and social relationships. 49 Third, in discussing the role of
47 48

Q 8, 145. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 3. 319. As further evidence that historical materialists considered the communal epoch as particularly important to review the role of communism in modernity, one can recall the way Antonio Labriola justified his interests in studying the heretical figure of Fra Dolcino. On April 24, 1897 Labriola wrote to Sorel that he had in mind di trattare allUniversit della condizione economica dellItalia superiore e media in su la fine del XIII, e in sul cominciamento del XIV secolo, col principale intento di spiegare lorigine del proletariato di campagna e di citt, per trovare poscia una qualche prammatica spiegazione al sorgere di certe agitazioni comunistiche, e per dichiarare da ultimo le vicende assai oscure della eroica vita di Fra Dolcino. Antonio Labriola. Discorrendo di Socialismo e Filosofia. Ed. Benedetto Croce. Bari: Laterza, 1947. 26. As Labriola himself mentions in the same letter, his idea of studying the life of Fra Dolcino perplexed intellectuals of his period, who saw this topic as inopportune for a Marxist. Yet, Labriola had no doubt that fu certo intento mio dessere e rimanere marxista, and added that non posso non prendere sotto la mia responsabilit personale le cose che dissi a mio rischio e pericolo, perch le fonti su le quali mi toccava di lavorare son quelle che maneggiano tutti gli altri storici, dogni altra scuola e indirizzo, e a Marx non aveva niente da chiedere, poich lui non aveva niente da offrirmi nella fattispecie. Ibid. The same volume includes a long letter to Sorel (July 2, 1897), in which Labriola deals exactly with the question of interpreting the history of Christianity through the paradigm of historical-genetic materialism. See pp. 118-146. As is well known, Gramsci considered Labriolas general approach to historical materialism exemplary. 49 Q 8, 195.

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expressions such as Third Reich, Gramsci analyzes the corresponding Italian version la terza Italia and argues that in Italy a more effective notion would have been Mazzinis lItalia del popolo.50 To explain the political potential of the democratic orientation embedded in Mazzinis formula Gramsci establishes a parallel with with the communes. Un precedente per il Mazzini sarebbero potuti essere i Comuni medioevali che furono un rinnovamento storico effettivo e radicale, ma essi furono sfruttati piuttosto dai federalisti come Cattaneo. (Largomento da porre in rapporto con le prime note scritte nel quaderno speciale su Machiavelli). 51 As this note suggests, in Gramscis view, the efficacy of a historical movement cannot be detached from the national-cultural history within which that movement ferments.52 From this comparative perspective, the past can become a powerful political tool in the present. Indeed, differently from Mazzini, the parallel with the communes was developed by Cattaneo and the federalists. As Croce also expressed in his Storia della storiografia italiana del secolo decimonono (1921), Cattaneo, giungendo al culmine, al movimento sociale del secolo undecimo, efficacemente lo ritrae in tutti i suoi tratti caratteristici e nel nesso del suo svolgersi, sfatando la teoria, invalsa nel Settecento, che poneva il principio del risorgimento europeo nelle Crociate e nelle relazioni con lOriente, laddove esso fu nei municip e nel legittimo possesso della ricchezza popolare. Alle lotte tra comune e comune, che s profondo sospiro traevano dai petti dei nazionalisti e unitar, guarda con ben pi largo senso della vita e della civilt umana; perch fra quelle battaglie il popolo cresceva, fra
50

La relativa fortuna della parola mazziniana di Italia del popolo che tendeva a indicare un rinnovamento completo, in senso democratico, di inizativa popolare, della nuova storia italiana in contrapposto al primato giobertiano che tendeva a presentare il passato come continuit ideale possibile col futuro, cio un determinato programma politico presente presentato come di larga portata. Ma il Mazzini non riusc a radicare la sua formula mitica e i suoi successori la diluirono e la immeschinirono nella retorica libresca. Q 15, 48. 1808-1809. 51 Ibid. Italics mine. 52 In this respect, Q 5, 150 is quite relevant, for Gramsci conceives Mazzinis political failure as related to the presence in his thought of traces of medieval universalism. This, in turn, did not allow Mazzini to generate a real political formation and reduced his legacy to a catalyst of ideological sectarianism and hence of disintegration. Q 5, 150. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 2. 398.

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quelle depradazioni si svolgeva uninsolita prosperit; e dai secoli precedenti a quel secolo v un trapasso come dalla putredine del sepolcro al fermento della vita.53 As this passage also shows, the processes leading toward Italian unification in nineteenth century constituted a laboratory for rethinking history and re-evaluating the ideological links between past and present. Similarly to Cattaneo, but from a different ideological orientation, Gramsci viewed the age of the communes as a revolutionary period in Italian history a period during which the popular classes attained a central position both in the social and political life of the urban governments. As observed in Q3, 16, entitled Sviluppo politico della classe popolare nel Comune medievale, the reciprocal wars among the Communes helped stimulate the formation of parties54 and allowed the popolo to become a real political party55 in the second half of the Duecento. The popolo, therefore, per dare maggiore efficacia alla sua azione si d un capo, il Capitano del popolo, ufficio che pare Siena abbia preso da Pisa e che nel nome come nella funzione rivela insieme origini e funzioni militari e politiche. Il popolo che gi, volta a volta, ma sporadicamente, si era riunito e si era costituito e aveva prese deliberazioni distinte, si costituisce come un ente a parte, che si d anche leggi proprie. [...] Entra in contrasto col Podest a cui contesta il diritto di pubblicar bandi e con cui il Capitano del popolo stipula delle paci. Quando il popolo non riesce ad ottenere dalle Autorit comunali le riforme volute, fa la sua secessione, con lappoggio di uomini eminenti del Comune e, costituitosi in assemblea indipendente, incomincia a creare magistrature proprie ad immagine di quelle generali del Comune, ad attribuire una giurisdizione al Capitano del popolo, e a deliberare di sua autorit, dando inizio (dal 1255) a tutta unopera legislativa. (Questi dati sono del comune di Siena).56 In conclusion, Gramsci notices, Il popolo riesce, prima praticamente, e poi anche formalmente, a fare accettare negli Statuti generali del Comune disposizioni che prima non legavano se non gli ascritti
53

Benedetto Croce. Storia della storiografia italiana del secolo decimonono. Vol. 2. Bari: Laterza, 1921. 13. Emphasis mine. 54 Q 3, 16. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 2. 22. See also Q 25, 4. 55 Q 3, 16. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 2. 23. 56 Ibid. 301-2. (Ed. Buttigieg, 23-24). Emphasis mine.

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al Popolo e di uso interno. Il popolo giunge quindi a dominare il comune, soverchiando la precedente classe dominante, come a Siena dopo il 1270, a Bologna con gli ordinamenti Sacrati e Sacratissimi, a Firenze con gli Ordinamenti di giustizia.57 As these passages indicate, Gramscis knowledge of the age of the communes was detailed and well-informed. Indeed, in his notes, we not only find general statements concerning the political value of past phenomena, but also nuanced historical accounts concerning particular case studies. Although Gramscis readings on the Middle Ages are scarce (if compared with other topics) and mostly composed of secondary sources, we should highlight that Gramscis interest in the epoch was certainly intense. 58 Given the relevance Gramsci attributes to the communes it is noteworthy to point out that his views on the Duecento are at odds with nationalistic interpretations of the commune. By critiquing the idea of a genetic continuity between the Duecento and the Risorgimento, Gramsci emphasized that Italian civilization (civilt) in thirteenth century was not linked to specific national ideals or movements, but to the vicissitudes of social classes. This conditioned Italian civilization to assume both politically and culturally a communal and local form, not a unitary form.59 In fact, Italian culture was born in dialect and would have to wait until the great [Tuscan] florescence of the fourteenth century before it could meld linguistically, and even then only up to a certain
57

Ibid. Emphasis mine. In re-writing this note in 1934 on the special Notebook 25, entitled Ai margini della storia (Storia dei gruppi sociali subalterni), Gramsci changed the expression classe popolare with gruppi sociali subalterni. This terminological change provoked a rich debate among diverse scholars, who argued that Gramsci began to use the term subaltern instead of proletariat in order to avoid the limitations of fascist censorship. As Marcus Green has emphasized, there is no evidence about this censorship. In fact, Gramsci continued to use the notion in his late prison notebooks, for instance, in notebook 25. See Marcus Green. Gramscis Concept of Subaltern Social Groups. Diss. York U, 2006. Ottawa, ON: Library and Archives Canada, 2006. 58 See Montanari. Gramsci e il medioevo. 85. 59 Q 6, 116. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 3. 97.

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point.60 The unity of Italian culture did not exist quite the opposite. What existed was a cultural Euro-Catholic universality, and the new culture reacted against this universality (which was based in Italy) by means of the local dialects and by bringing to the fore the practical interests of municipal bourgeois groups.61 It is in this context that Gramscis final interpretation of Dantes De vulgari eloquentia as an act of national-cultural politics appears significant. Indeed, as claimed in Q 7, 78, Dantes love for the plebeian language, born out of the virtually heretical state of mind of the communes, was bound to clash with a quasi-humanistic concept of knowledge. 62 This can be better viewed, if we also consider that the vernacularization of culture was, for Gramsci, a process counterposed to the Catholic universalism which, arguably, a proto-humanistic Italian clerus inherited and reformulated into a love for Latinitas. As highlighted in Q 7, 68, humanism was the first clerical phenomenon in the modern sense; it was a Counter-Reformation in advance (besides, it was a Counter-Reformation vis--vis the commune period). The humanists opposed the breakdown of medieval and feudal universalism that the commune implied and that was smothered in its infancy, etc.63 While I will return to the contest between Dante and proto-humanists in chapter 3, it is important now to emphasize that the contrast between cultural vernacularization and clerical universalism does not indicate that the flowering of a vernacular culture originated as a national culture. In fact, as Gramsci suggests, we should not confuse two different historical moments:
60

Ibid. Gramscis point here seems to be at odds with the more recent one of American historian Charles T. Davis, who argued that, The word Italy during Dantes lifetime (1265-1321) denoted a peninsula united by language and history but not by any central government. See C.T. Davis. Dantes Italy. Philadeplhia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1984. 1. 61 Q 6, 116. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 3. 97. 62 Q 7, 68. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 3. 205. 63 Ibid. 206. Emphasis mine.

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(1) the rupture with medieval culture, the most significant evidence of which is the emergence of the vernaculars; (2) the development of an illustrious vulgar tongue in other words, the fact that intellectual groups or, rather, professional men of letters achieved a certain degree of centralization.64 It is this second point that describes what Dante attempted to do in writing De vulgari eloquentia at the beginning of the fourteenth century. In this light, we can appreciate Gramscis argument that the development of vernacular languages was strictly connected to the virtually heretical state of mind from which the institutions of the communes arose.65 To better grasp the sense of the association of the commune with heresy we should point out that Gramsci uses the term heretical not only to denote stricto sensu those phenomena that the Catholic Church condemned as such, but also to refer to a wider sense including tutte le innovazioni nel seno della Chiesanon dovute a iniziativa del centro.66 This wider sense of heresy echoes the etymology itself of the word, which, according to Isidore of Seville, derives from the Greek verb to choose. Heretics are, indeed, people who decide independently of the dogmas and teachings of the Church.67 It is this broad sense of heresy that allows Gramsci to claim that even the commune was in itself a heresy because it was bound to clash with the papacy to become
64 65

Q 6, 118. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 3. 97. Q 7, 68. 66 Q 6, 188. 833. 67 Haeresis Graece ab electione vocatur, quod scilicet unusquisque id sibi eligat quod melius illi esse videtur , ut philosophi Peripatetici, Academici, et Epicurei et Stoici, vel sicut alii qui perversum dogma cogitantes arbitrio suo de Ecclesia recesserunt. Inde ergo haeresis dicta Graeca voce, ex interpretation electionis, qua quisque arbitrio suo ad instituenda, sive ad suspicienda quaelibet ipse sibi elegit. Etymologies VIII.iii.1-2. English Trans.: Heresy (haeresis) is so called in Greek from choice, doubtless because each person chooses (eligere) for himself that which seems best to him, as did the Peripatetic, Academic, Epicurean, and Stoic philosophers or just others who, pondering perverse teachings, have withdrawn from the Church by thei own will. Hence, therefore, heresy, named with a Greek word, takes its meaning from choice, by which each person, according to his own judgment, chooses for himself whatever he pleases to institute and adopt. Stephen A. Barney, Jennifer A. Beach, Oliver Berghof, ed. Etymologies of Isidore of Seville. West Nyack, NY: Cambridge UP, 2002. 174.

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independent.68 Gramscis view on the communes not only helps us to contextualize his ideas on Dantes lingustic project, but also to re-address Gramscis historical materialism and to re-consider its opposition to Croce a lay pope69 and the last man of the Renaissance,70 in whose notion of intellectual c qualcosa di cattolico e clericale. 71 In fact, Gramsci himself viewed his own version of communism, or philosophy of praxis, as a heresy with regard to the idealism of lay pope Croce.72 Croce rimprovera alla filosofia della praxis il suo scientismo, la sua superstizione materialistica, un suo presunto ritorno al medioevo intellettuale. Sono i rimproveri che Erasmo, nel linguaggio del tempo, muoveva al luteranesimo. Luomo del Rinascimento e luomo creato dallo sviluppo della Riforma si sono fusi nellintellettuale moderno del tipo Croce, ma se questo tipo sarebbe incomprensibile senza la Riforma, esso non riesce pi a comprendere il processo storico per cui dal medievale Lutero si necessariamente giunti allo Hegel e perci di fronte alla grande riforma intellettuale e morale rappresentata dal diffondersi della filosofia della praxis riproduce meccanicamente latteggiamento di Erasmo.73 In this light, Gramscis refocusing on Dantes De vulgari eloquentia in the final notebook and his programmatic anti-Crocian reading of Inferno 10 the canto in which Dante dramatizes the conditions of the heretics can be conceived as expressions of the virtually heretical state of mind embedded in his notion of communism and philosophy of
68

Q 7, 68. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 3. 206. Gramscis notion of heretical spirit relates to an economicgiuridical view of the historical development of the Communes, to which historians such as Felice Tocco, Gioacchino Volpe, Gaetano Salvemini, Carlo Cipolla, and later on Giovanni de Vergottini, and others dedicated their studies. Gramsci himself emphasizes in Q 6, 116 that the heresies of the Middle Ages will have to be studied (Tocco, Volpe, etc.). For the relationship between Communes and heresy, see also Giovanni de Vergottini. Studi sulla legislazione imperiale di Federico II in Italia. Milano: Giuffr, 1952 and Lezioni di storia del diritto pubblico italiano nei secoli XII-XV. Bologna: Zuffi, 1957, 2 vols. For a discussion (contemporary to Gramsci) about the communes, see also Gaetano Salvemini. Magnati e popolani in Firenze dal 1280 al 1295. Firenze: Carnesecchi, 1899. 69 See Gramsci. Letters from Prison. Ed. Rosengarten. Vol. 2. 67. 70 On Croce and the model of civilization of the Renaissance see at least Q 3, 140; Q 7, 1 and 17; Q 10, 41.i and 41.iv. 71 Q 10, 41.iv. 72 For a discussion of the contest between the Reformation and the Church as it parallels the dialectic between the philolosophy of praxis and Croces idealism see also Q16, 9, entitled Alcuni problemi

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praxis. In this sense, a close and reflective reading of Inferno 10 can allow us to clarify Gramscis insights on Dantes intellectual labor in the context of the communes the only example, for Gramsci, of a movement in Italian history, akin to the Reformation, that might have been used to reinforce modern democratic orientations.
per lo studio dello svolgimento della filosofia della praxis. Q 10, 41.i. Emphasis mine.

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CHAPTER 2 GRAMSCIS CONTRAPUNTAL READING OF INFERNO 10

Se per questo cieco carcere vai per altezza dingegno... Dante, Inf. 10.57-58 ...cotesto materialismo storico esige, da chi voglia professarlo consapevolemente e schiettamente professarlo, una certa curiosa maniera di umilt Antonio Labriola

The relevance of Dantes position in Gramscis thought has been not much clarified by Gramsci scholars. Although such scholars as Frank Rosengarten, Renate Holub, Paul Bov, Geoffrey Hill, Guido Guglielmi, and others74 devoted their attention to
74

Frank Rosengarten. Gramscis Little Discovery: Gramscis Interpretation of Canto X of Dantes Inferno. Boundary 2 14.3 (1986): 71-90; Renate Holub. Antonio Gramsci: Beyond Marixsm and Postmodernism. 117-147; Paul Bov. Dante, Gramsci, and Cultural Criticism. In Mastering Discourse: the Politics of Intellectual Culture. Durham: Duke UP, 1992. 200-214; Geoffrey Hill. Between Politics and Eternity. In Peter S. Hawkins and Rachel Jakoff, eds. The Poets Dante. New York: Reffar, Straus and Giroux, 2001. 319-332; Guido Guglielmi. Il canto X dellInferno. In Da De Sanctis a Gramsci: il linguaggio della critica. Bologna: Il Mulino, 1976; Sebastiano Aglian. Il canto di Farinata: Inf. X. Lucca: Casa Editrice Lucentia, 1953; Giorgio Padoan. Il canto degli Epicurei. Convivium (January-February 1959): 12-39; Rocco Montano. Per linterpretazione del Canto degli Epicurei. Convivium (November-December 1960): 707-716; Odoardo Strigelli. Il canto di Farinata dopo gli appunti di Gramsci. Inventario 1 (1952): 97-104; Mario Sansone. Il canto X dellInferno. Firenze: Le Monnier, 1961; Armanda Guiducci. A proposito di estetica in Gramsci. In Alberto Caracciolo and Giovanni Scalia, eds. La citt futura: Saggi sulla figura e il pensiero di Antonio Gramsci. Milano: Feltrinelli, 1959. 371-389; Simonetta Piccone Stella. Questioni di estetica nel pensiero di Antonio Gramsci. Il Contemporaneo 44 (January 1962): 7-23; Rino Dal Sasso. Il rapporto struttura-poesia nelle note di Gramsci sul decimo canto dellInferno. In Studi gramsciani. Roma: Editori Riuniti, 1969. 123-142; Galvano Della Volpe. In Studi gramsciani. 543-548; Francesco Mattarrese. Interpretazioni dantesche. Bari: Laterza, 1952; Bartolo Anglani. La critica letteraria in Antonio Gramsci. Critica Marxista 3 (1967): 208-230; Bartolo Anglani. La revisione gramsciana di Croce e il concetto di struttura nelle note sul canto decimo dellInferno. In Pietro Rossi, ed. Gramsci e la cultura contemporanea. Vol. 2. Roma: Editori Riuniti, 1970. 339-346; Bartolo Anglani. Egemonia e poesia. Gramsci: larte, la letteratura. Lecce: Pietro Manni, 1999; Carlo Muscetta. Gramsci in carcere. In Letteratura militante. Firenze: Parenti editore, 2007. 109-119; Natalino Sapegno. Canto Decimo. In Dante Alighieri. La Divina Commedia: Inferno. Firenze: La Nuova Italia, 1978. 108-109; Betsy Emerick. Auerbach and Gramsci on Dante: Criticism and Ideology. Carte Italiane, 1 (19791980): 9-22; Andrea Menetti. Il lettore in carcere: la critica letteraria nei Quaderni. Roma: Carocci, 2004; Angelo Rossi and Giuseppe Vacca. Dante corriere segreto fra Gramsci e Togliatti. In Gramsci tra Mussolini e Stalin. Roma: Fazi, 2007. 38-46; Giuseppe Prestipino. La struttura in Dante. In Dai maestri del pensiero e dellarte alla filosofia della praxis. Roma: SEAM, 2008. 15-23; Federico

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Gramscis reading of Inferno 10, so far no extended research has been attempted to thoroughly clarify and debate the role, position, and meaning of Dante in the larger frame of Gramscis work. Furthermore, earlier discussions have tended to be confined to questions such as why and how Gramsci read Inferno 10, or what this reading can suggest us about Gramscis aesthetics, hermeneutic philosophy, and theory of art. In this chapter, my intention is not to review the research concerning Gramscis notes on Inferno 10 scholars have carried out, but to highlight, on the one side, the several insights Gramsci, as a reader and performer of criticism, provides to us in the course of what I term his contrapuntal reading of Inferno 10, and, on the other, to review Gramscis reading in light of his notes about the history of intellectuals. Actually, these two aims are part of one single goal, i.e. to achieve a fuller understanding of Gramscis labor of criticism as it relates to Dante and the history of Italian intellectuals. In order to point out those insights that characterize Gramsci as a reader and critic of Dante, I will divide this chapter in different section. First, I will discuss the historical context and existential circumstances in which Gramsci mostly read and wrote about Dante and, by doing so, I will give a short account of Dantes reception in the Risorgimento, which, arguably, Gramsci overcomes in his prison writings. Next, after introducing Inferno 10, I will closely look at De Sanctiss and Croces interpretations of this canto and show the reading strategies Gramsci employs to critique Croces theoretical framework, which, grounded in a rigid separation of structural and poetic parts in the Comedy, led Croce to de-value allegorical approaches to the poem and debase the structural framework as an expression of poetry. Thus, in emphasizing the
Sanguineti, Gramsci e Machiavelli. Roma-Bari: Laterza, 1981.

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notion of drama embedded in Gramscis vision of Dantes poetry, I will argue that the logic at the basis of Gramscis reading of Inferno 10 is similar to the dialectical logic he employed in his Prison Notebooks. This logic enacts the notion of criticism Gramsci expressed in theory in Q 8, 195, according to which, criticism results in a process of differentiation and of change in the relative weight that the adherents of the old ideologies used to possess. What was once considered secondary and subordinate, or even incidental, comes to be seen as primary and becomes the nucleus of a new ideological and theoretical complex. The old collective will break up into its contradictory component parts, because those parts of it that were subordinate develop socially, etc.75 In this light, I will display the ways Gramscis contrapuntal reading of Inferno 10 radically counters the implicit conservative dialectic at work in Croces interpretation of the canto. In the final section of the chapter, I will propose a way to discuss Gramscis interest in Inferno 10 in light of his reflections concerning the Italian Communes and the history of the Italian intellectuals in the Duecento, to which I devoted my attention in the first chapter. As it will be more evident from a reading of this chapter in conjunction with the first one, the method I employ in both of them is to view Gramscis work on Inf. 10 in light of the broad constellation of research interests Gramsci outlined in the first note of the Prison Notebooks. In my view, the topic Cavalcante Cavalcanti: his position in the structure and art of the Divine Comedy, noted as the fifth of sixteenth topics, should not be considered in isolation from the other issues he annotated, but as an integral part of a large constellation including at least the following topics:

75

Q 8, 195. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 3. 346.

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1. Theory of history and of historiography; 2. Development of the Italian bourgeoisie up to 1870; 3. Formation of Italian intellectual groups; 4. Popular literature; 5. The concept of folklore; 6. Common sense; 7. The question of the language in Italy: Manzoni e G. I. Ascoli; 8. Neo-grammarians and neo-linguists (this round table is square). This list includes the same topics Franco Lo Piparo selected in his major study on Gramsci as linguist, where he argued that in these topics linguistic issues play a central role.76 Yet, given that the topic concerning the position of Cavalcante de Cavalcanti in the Comedy is a molecule through which to observe micro-logically the practices of criticism Gramsci enacts by engaging in a series of reflections on language, textuality, and history, it is odd that Lo Piparo did not mention it. One more topic should be added to the ones listed before, i.e. the eighth of Gramscis list, Experiences of prison life. Actually, this topic could not be considered as simply one issue among others. It is in fact a living dimension imprinted in Gramscis entire research project and writing activity in prison. Indeed, the state of vulnerability and exclusion Gramsci lived in prison can be observed through the double perspective that seems to affect his perception of his life and study: Nella vita umana [] quanto pi un individuo costretto a difendere la propria esistenza fisica immediata, tanto pi sostiene e si pone dal punto di vista di tutti i complessi e pi elevati valori della civilt e dellumanit. 77
76 77

See Franco Lo Piparo. Lingua, intellettuali, egemonia in Gramsci. Roma-Bari: Laterza, 1979. 9-10. Q 13, 15 (1932-1934).

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1. An Unfinished Discourse in Chains: Dante, the Risorgimento, and Gramsci

In one of his few remarks devoted to Gramsci, Edward Said pointed out that Gramscis mode of writing was a sort of prismatic expression,78 that is, a situated-andnever-resolved-expression. In other words, it is a never-finished kind of writing whose meaning is characterized by the momentary and transitory position of its writer. Saids notion that Gramscis writing is situated suggests the importance of considering the historical context in which Gramsci read and wrote. In fact, his reading and writing activity in prison are inseparable from his being an anti-fascist politicianintellectual in chains. Given the circumstances in which his unflagging and meticulous work of research was pursued, Gramscis activities of reading and writing in prison were exceptional. They were exceptional because not situated in a professional context surrounded by libraries and other services typical of academic research institutions. In addition, the contingent circumstances affected the structure of his prison writings and the development of his ideas. Indeed, as Giorgio Baratta emphasized in one of his last public speeches on Gramsci, Gramsci was a writer of non-books.79 In general terms, Gramscis reading, thinking, and writing activities were part of the existential struggle he fought onto two fronts. On the one side, he struggled as a
78

Edward Said. History, Literature, and Geography. in Reflections on Exile and Other Essays. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2003. 466-467. Saids idea has been followed by David Ruccio Unfinished Business: Gramscis Prison Notebooks. Rethinking Marxism. 18.1 (2006): 1-7, and Joseph Buttigieg, The Prison Notebooks: Antonio Gramscis Work in Progress. Rethinking Marxism. 18.1 (2006): 37-42, in particular 41. See also Giorgio Baratta. Gramsci in Contrappunto. Rome: Carocci, 2007.

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political leader and intellectual against fascism and in favor of communism. On the other side, he fought against the traumatic experience of fascist prisons, which imposed on him conditions of vulnerability and exclusion. 80 In fact, such conditions are historically not exceptional. As Walter Benjamin emphasized in his eighth Thesis on the Philosophy of History, the tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the state of emergency in which we live is not the exception but the rule.81 Situations of exile, imprisonment, diaspora, and displacement are indeed common in history. As Edward Said pointed out, Modern Western culture is in large part the work of exiles, migrs, refugees82 and between exile and nation building processes there is a deep historical association. From this broad perspective, a brief report on the meaning of Dante in the period that led Italy and Italians to unification, from the Risorgimento to Fascism seems to be relevant. After Vicos and Alfieris pioneering interest in Dante during the Settecento, Dantes relevance to the Ottocento increased, to the point that he became a central reference for Italian intellectuals such as Foscolo, Leopardi, Pellico, Mazzini, Manzoni,
79

Giorgio Baratta. Dialoghetto tra Gramsci e una sua ombra. The Third International Conference of the International Gramsci Society, Cagliari-Ghilarza, 4-5 May 2007. 80 On the effects of the prison in Gramscis subjectivity see Nereide Rudas. Reclusione, solitudine e creativit in Gramsci. In Eugenio Orr and N. Rudas, eds. Il pensiero permanente: Gramsci oltre il suo tempo. Cagliari: Tema, 1999. 310-333; Betsy Emerick. Auerbach and Gramsci on Dante: Criticism and Ideology. Carte Italiane 1 (1979-1980): 9-22. An appreciation of the psychosomatic effect of the prison on Gramscis mind is also at the center of Renate Holubs interpretation of Gramscis reading of Dante. See Renate Holub, Antonio Gramsci: Beyond Marixsm and Postmodernism. 117-147. See also Joseph Francese. Thoughts on Gramscis Need To Do Something Fr ewig. Rethinking Marxism 21.1 (January 2009): 54-66; Massimo Lollini. La questione del soggetto nelle Lettere dal carcere di Antonio Gramsci tra testimonianza e letteratura. In Mauro Pala, ed. Americanismi: Sulla ricezione del pensiero di Gramsci in America. 145-167. See also Stefano Selenu. Elaborando le tracce della storia. Linguaggio, metafora, alterit in Antonio Gramsci. In Barnaba Maj and Rossana Lista, ed. Sulla "traccia" di Michel de Certeau. Interpretazioni e percorsi. Discipline Filosofiche. 1 (2008): 115-133. 81 Walter Benjamin. Theses on the Philosophy of History. In Illuminations: Essays and Reflections. Ed.

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Perticari, Settembrini, Rossetti, Balbo, Cattaneo, Gioberti, De Sanctis, and others.83 Most of them spent at least part of their lives in exile and/or in prison. As Maurizio Isabella highlighted, between 1799 and 1850 exile was a phenomenon that affected a significant section of the Italian educated classes, if not in quantitative terms, then in terms of the importance that this group of exiled intellectuals had in Italy and continued to have abroad in the creation of a national movement and a national identity.84 Exile was a contributory cause in the production of discursive and political activity regarding the national identity, both at home in Italy and abroad. The existential and spiritual conditions of exclusion, alienation, and vulnerability in which most intellectuals and activists lived in the Risorgimento cannot be disregarded as irrelevant to the generation of a cult around Dante. The conditions of oppression and exile Italians experienced were denounced in Manzonis first published sonnet, entitled A Francesco Lomonaco per la Vita di Dante. In this poem, exile is described as the repression of both the individual and the nation and, to Manzonis understanding of the Italian situation, Dantes fate offered a symbolic parallel. Come il divo Alighier lingrata Flora errar fea per civil rabbia sanguigna, pel suol, cui liberal natura infiora, ove spesso il buon nasce, e rado alligna, esule egregio narri, e Tu pur ora duro esempio ne dai, Tu, cui maligna sorte sospinse, e tiene incerto ancora in questa di gentili alme madrigna.
Hannah Arendt. Trans. Harry Zohn. New York: Schocken Books, 1969. 257. Edward Said. Reflections on Exile and Other Essays. 172. 83 On Risorgimento interpretation of Dante, see Aldo Vallone. Storia della Critica Dantesca dal XIV al XX Secolo. Vol 2. Padova: Vallardi, 1981. 735-812. 84 See Maurizio Isabella. Exile and Nationalism: the Case of the Risorgimento. European History Quarterly 36 (2006): 493.
82

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Tal premj, Italia, i tuoi migliori, e poi Che pro se piangi, e l cener freddo adori, e al nome voto onor divini fai? S da barbari oppressa opprimi i tuoi, e ognor tuoi danni e tue colpe deplori, pentita sempre, e non cangiata mai. 85 The sonnets comparison between the present time, represented by Lomonaco, and the past of Dante is crucial for our analysis here. Indeed, what Manzonis poem entails is the view of an unchangeable historical situation, according to which, in a profound sense, Italy, in punishing her intellectuals, remained always identical to herself. From the early writings of Perticari (Sullamor patrio di Dante e il Vulgare eloquio, 1921), Mazzini (Sullamor patrio di Dante, 1927) and Balbo (Vita di Dante, 1931) to the Italian unification in1861, debate on Dante became the terrain for political and cultural struggles. Even the language employed in political discourse during these twenty years express the centrality of Dante and late medieval culture. Indeed, notions such as Guelf and Ghibelline were revitalized and widely used in both political and cultural discourses of the period. Francesco Lanzani already highlighted in 1878 that the Italian cultural-political struggles in the Risorgimento resembled the struggles between the two Florentine political factions of Dantes age.86 In this respect, Gramscis reading of Dante can be also seen as a critique of the cultural legacy inherited from the Risorgimento. In fact, in his rejection of Morellos
85

Alessandro Manzoni. Poesie e Tragedie. Ed. Valter Boggione. Torino: Einaudi, 2002. 338-339. Manzoni wrote this sonnet in honor to Francesco Lomonaco, who in 1802-1803 published his Vite degli eccellenti italiani (Lives of excellent Italians). Lomonacos work begins exactly with the life of Dante. Furthermore, as is clear from Manzonis sonnet, Lomonaco was exiled in 1799 and travelled to Paris, Geneva, and then Milan. 86 Lanzani. Del carattere e delle vicende della storiografia italiana nel sec. XIX. Padova, 1878. From Benedetto Croce. Storia della storiografia italiana nel secolo decimonono. Vol. 2. Bari: Laterza, 1921.

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interpretation, which viewed Farinata as the central figure of Inf. 10, Gramsci transcends the patriotic views of the Risorgimento and adopts a less anachronistic approach to Dantes political position. Arguably, Mazzini, more than any other, was responsible for the patriotic interpretation of Dante as the Prophet of the Fatherland, who suffered exile for lamore immenso, chei portava alla patria.87 As Salvatore Battaglia observed, nella valutazione del Mazzini lItalia di Dante si prospetta come una fucina di passioni e disponibilit, vanificate dallincapacit delle classi dominanti e dalla faziosit e dal particolarismo dei governi responsabili. Il quadro e le risultanze che ne disegna il Mazzini coincidono con lammonimento che ne aveva dato il Machiavelli e che ancora ne dar ai giorni nostri Antonio Gramsci. Solo che nella pagina del Mazzini la sua diagnosi acquista una concitazione da epopea e una drammaticit biblica. 88 In Mazzinis appropriation and self-identification with Dantes past, the Florentine poet himself emerged as the symbolic equivalent of the national unity for which Italians were struggling during the Risorgimento. According to Mazzini, Dante represented the perfect symbolic figure for the imagined national unity for two main reasons. First, Dante had created the idea of an Italian patria, and, second, Dantes suffering of body and spirit in exile was a symbol for the suffering body and spirit of the Italian nation. In his early essay entitled Dellamore patrio di Dante (1827), Mazzini was already advocating that Italians would learn and absorb a spirit of patriotism from Dante and from those who devoted their life and intellect (vita e intelletto) for their Fatherland: Avete voi versata mai una lacrima sulla bella contrada, che gli odi, i partiti, le
144. See Giuseppe Mazzini. Dellamor patrio di Dante. In Opere. Ed. Luigi Salvatorelli. Milano: Rizzoli, 1967. 73. 88 Salvatore Battaglia. Dante nel pensiero di G. Mazzini. Filologia e letteratura 46 (1966): 119.
87

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dissensioni, e la prepotenza straniera ridussero al nulla? Se tali siete, studiate Dante; da quelle pagine profondamente energiche, succhiate quello sdegno magnanimo, onde lesule illustre nudriva lanima; ch lira contro i vizi e le corruttele virt. Apprendete da lui, come si serva alla terra natia, finch loprare non vietato; come si viva nella sciagura. 89 Furthermore, in his preface to Foscolos edition of the Comedy,90 in following Foscolos idea to study Dante by focusing on his life, works, and historical context, Mazzini claims that lo studio ha da cominciare dalla vita del Poeta, dalla tradizione Italiana chei compendiava e continuava del Genio, dallOpere Minori chei disegnava come preparazione al Poema []. Perch Dante una tremenda Unit: individuo che racchiude, siccome in germe, lunit e lindividualit nazionale; e la sua vita, i suoi detti, i suoi scritti sincatenano in unIdea, e tutto Dante un pensiero unico, seguito, sviluppato, predicato nei cinquantasei anni della sua esistenza terrestre con tale una costanza superior alle paure e alle seduzioni mondane che basterebbe a consecrarlo Genio []. Ed . La Patria s incarnata in Dante. La grande anima sua ha presentito, pi di cinque secoli addietro e tra le zuffe impotenti de Guelfi e de Ghibellini, lItalia [].91 As this passage indicates, in the Risorgimento, studying Dante was not a neutral act.92 Indeed, strictly related to the creation of a national identity and to the struggles for unification, Dante was seen as a major subject to study not only philologically but as a useful guide and master for the present. Only after 1870 when the Risorgimento period was definitely closed and new
89 90

Giuseppe Mazzini. Dellamore patrio di Dante. 61-79. The publication of this edition of the Comedy was particularly complicated. After several difficulties, in particular of economic kind, Mazzini published it at his own expense. For Mazzini, this publication meant more than editorial success. In fact, he strongly believed that this edition would provide to Italians and Italy with a precious monument of Italian culture. He perceived the success of this publication as the accomplishment of one of his most significant political missions. 91 Giuseppe Mazzini. Prefazione allEdizione. Dante Alighieri. La Commedia illustrata da Ugo Foscolo. London, 1842. XIV-XV. 92 As Suzanne Stewart-Steinberg emphasized in her recent book, The Pinocchio Effect, in Italian modern history up to Fascism education cannot be detached from the need of constructing and imposing an imagined national identity on Italians. See The Pinocchio Effect: On Making Italians (1860-1920). Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2007.

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philological approaches were applied to Dante studies93 the ideological potential of Dantes cult begun to decline. The philological study of Dantes texts contributed to de-mystify and secularize Dantes figure in the political and public sphere. In other words, after the unification, Dante studies began to be conceived more and more as a politically neutral intellectual field. This allowed early twentieth-century scholars to study not only Dante, but also the reception and commemoration of his works during the Risorgimento and its immediate aftermath.94 In the twentieth century, Dantes significance continued to increase and it was often used by both fascist and conservative intellectuals such as Mussolini himself, Giovanni Gentile, Giuseppe Terragni,95 and exiled progressive intellectuals of Europe
93

The last three decades of the nineteenth century are the period in which the Societ Dantesca Italiana and the Societ Dante Alighieri were founded, in 1888 and 1890 respectively. The name of the Societ Dante Alighieri was proposed by Bonghi, who looked at the name Dante as politically neutral. Notably, to return Dante to a neutrally political terrain was exactly one of the aims of Ruggero Bonghi, one of the Presidents of the Societ Dante Alighieri, whose work is important for Gramsci. It was indeed from Ruggero Bonghi that Gramsci derived the notion and question of the non-nationalpopular character of Italian literature. The influences of Francesco De Sanctis and new critical approaches from abroad, such as that of the German historicist Karl Witte, helped to stabilize and institutionalize the studies on Dante. Moreover, in the last decades of the nineteenth-century, new University positions were created and were occupied by outstanding Dante scholars such as Guido Mazzoni, Pio Rajna, and Michele Barbi. For Dante abroad see Richard Lansing, ed. The Dante Encyclopedia. 255-286. For Dante in Germany see also Giovanni A. Scartazzini. Dante in Germania. 2 vols. Milano, 1881-1883. 94 See Pio Rajna. I centenari danteschi passati e il centenario presente. Nuova Antologia di Lettere, Scienza ed Arti (May-June 1921): 2-23. See also Andrea Ciccarelli. Dante and the Cultura of Risorgimento: Literary, Political or Ideological Icon? In Albert Russell Ascoli and Krystyna von Henneberg, eds. Making and Remaking Italy: The Cultivation of National Identity around the Risorgimento. Oxford-New York: Berg, 2001. 77-102; Bruno Tobia. La statuaria dantesca nellItalia liberale: tradizione, identit e culto nazionale. In Mlanges de lcole Franaise de Rome 109 (1997): 75-87. 95 A list might include Mussolini himself, philosopher Giovanni Gentile, architect Giuseppe Terragni. Giuseppe Terragni, with the architect Pietro Lingeri tried to build a fascist apologetic work of architecture named Danteum. This building was designed in 1938, and its aim was to build a unique building that could architectonically represent Dantes Divine Comedy. The project was both innovative and ambitious. Its political aim was to create an allegory and analogy between the imperial political project expressed in the Divine Comedy and Fascist Imperial Power. The building was never built, cause of Mussolinis Fall in the Second World War. See Schumacher, Thomas L. The Danteum: Architecture,

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and Russia such as Primo Levi, Osip Mandeltam, Erich Auerbach, and Leo Spitzer. Between Gramsci and this last group of intellectuals lies a historical and existential affinity. They all lived in an existential state of vulnerability, exclusion, and exception.

2. Disinterested Study and Philology

The experience of vulnerability lived in prison also affected Gramscis research plans and, arguably, his ethical-political sensitivity as both a politician and a readerwriter.96 Indeed, in his letter to his sister-in-law, Tania Schucht, dated March 19, 1927, Gramsci expressed the need to concentrate intensely and systematically on some subject that would absorb and provide a center to [his] inner life. 97 To achieve this goal, he expresses a particular desire to pursue a research plan from a disinterested, fr ewig point of view.98 Gramscis prison studies on Dante are also related to this desire. In another letter to Tania, dated September 7, 1931,99 Gramsci himself links his interests in Inferno 10 to his life in prison. In referring to his reading of the canto he ironically admits, Dont think that I have given up studying or that I am discouraged because at a certain point I cannot go ahead with my research. I have not yet lost a certain
Poetics, and Politics under Italian Fascism. New York: Princeton Architectural P, 1993. Gramscis ethical-political sensitivity has also been emphasized by Timothy Brennan. Gramsci e gli Stati Uniti: unesasperazione. In Mauro Pala, ed. Americanismi. See in particular 126. 97 Gramsci. Letters from Prison. Vol. 1. Ed. Rosengarten. 83. 98 Ibid. In this letter Gramsci outlines a list of subjects to be studied when in prison. These subjects include: a research on Italian intellectuals, their origins, their grouping according to the cultural movements, their different thinking modes; a study of comparative linguistics; a study on Pirandellos theater and on the transformation of Italian theatrical taste that Pirandello represented and contributed to determine; a research on the appendix novels and the popular taste in literature. According to Gramsci all these major topics are interrelated and homogeneous, since they all deal with the creative spirit of the people in its different stages and degrees of development. Ibid. 99 This is the letter, in which Gramsci reflects on the concept of intellectual, the integral state, and the Communes. See also chapter one.
96

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inventive ability in the sense that every important thing I read stimulates my thinking. Now, how would I go constructing an article on this subject? [] I confine myself to writing on philological and philosophical subjects, the kind that inspired Heine to write these words: They were so boring that I feel asleep, but my boredom was so intense that it forced me to wake up. In other words, Gramsci needed to study from a disinterested standpoint and to occupy himself with philological and philosophical subjects in order to react against the conditions of his life in prison. If so, are these letters indications that Gramscis studies are not part of a larger political project? Or, in Gramscis ironic attitude of disinterest and boredom can we also detect a deeper cultural-political perspective? Joseph Francese has recently suggested that incarceration led Gramsci to change his political strategy from a war of maneuver to a war of position. 100 In Franceses argument, the idea of holding a disinterested research approach is also related to this change in political strategy. Indeed, Francese emphasizes, disinterested, in Gramscis parlance, is not an antonym of engaged or worldly, but instead expresses his wish to think and theorize free from the pressures of immediate contingency. 101 According to Francese, Gramsci borrows this sense of disinterested from Gaetano Salveminis essay Che cos la cultura?102 In my view, we can add another hypothesis, which links his idea of disinterested study to his confrontation with Croce. The use of disinterested seems to enact an inter-textual game with Croces passage on Italian Marxism at the fin de sicle in his Storia della storiografia italiana nel
100

Joseph Francese. Thoughts on Gramscis Need To Do Something Fr ewig. In Rethinking Marxism 21.1 (January 2009): 54-66. 101 Ibid. 56.

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secolo decimonono. For Croce, Marxist historiography was una storiografia interessata nel senso buono della parola, simpatico cio e vibrante con gli avvenimenti che narra, in contrasto con quella filologica, che era disinteressata nel cattivo senso, apatica e indifferente. 103 And this historiography Croce insists anche, nel fatto e non solo nel programma, filologica, in buon accordo con la paleografia e la diplomatica, con la genealogia delle fonti, con la letteratura dellargomento; e nelladoperare tutti questi strumenti, ormai in possesso di una guida, di una misura del pi e del meno importante, e non si lascia soverchiare dal materiale incoerente. La precisione filologica e un certo acume realistico, proveniente dalleconomia e dal materialismo storico, rendono questi nuovi storici diffidenti delle ideologie, non solo della liberale e romantica, ma altres in certa misura della democratica e socialistica, e bramosi di osservar le cose nei loro tratti particolari e diversi. 104 Considered as a counterpoint to Croce, Gramscis use of the term disinterested acquires a different light. Gramscis historical work drew heavily on fin de sicle Italian historical materialism, represented by thinkers and scholars such as Antonio Labriola, Gaetano Salvemini, Carlo Cippola, and others. In this respect, it is plausible to suggest that Gramscis use of the term disinterested is an inter-textual play with the way Croce used the notions of interest, ideology, and philology to deal with Marxist historiography. Yet, we should also point out that Gramsci did not use the notion of disinterested in a totally coherent way. Indeed, in a letter to his sister-in-law Tania, dated December 15, 1930, Gramsci seems to overcome his early desire to pursue disinterested research. When asserting that the dialogue with his wife in Russia was a real psychological need for him, he explains that
102 103

Ibid. 58. Benedetto Croce. Storia della storiografia italiana nel secolo decimonono. Bari: Laterza, 1921. 241. Italics mine.

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Perhaps it is because my entire intellectual formation has been of a polemical order; even thinking disinterestedly is difficult for me, that is, studying for studys sake. Only occasionally, but rarely, does it happens that I lose myself in a specific order of reflections and find, so to speak, in the things themselves enough interest to devote myself to their analysis. Ordinarily, I need to set out from a dialogical or dialectical standpoint, otherwise I dont experience any intellectual stimulation. As I once told you, I dont like to cast stones into the darkness; I want to feel a concrete interlocutor or adversary 105 If one compares this passage with the letter to Tania (March 19, 1927), Gramsci seems to convey a double perspective on the purposes of disinterested study: on the one hand, the positive need of focusing his mind through such study, and, on the other, the need to establish dialogue with both interlocutors and adversaries. Despite this double perspective, from a more general viewpoint, we could say that Gramsci never gave up a kind of disinterested approach as diffidence towards ideological fanaticism. 106 In Gramscis view, this type of fanaticism is often caused by incapacity to detach oneself from immediate desires and petty passions. Often, i proprii desideri e le proprie passioni deteriori e immediate sono la causa dellerrore, in quanto essi sostituiscono lanalisi obiettiva e imparziale e ci avviene non come mezzo consapevole per stimolare allazione ma come autoinganno. La biscia, anche in questo caso, morde il ciarlatano ossia il demagogo la prima vittima della sua demagogia. 107 From this perspective, Gramscis harsh critiques of Nikholai Bukharins Popular Manual are memorable. In order to critique Bukharin, Gramsci enlists the figure of the serious reader who could reject all those interpretations of reality and culture that show themselves to be teleological, superficial, and determined by immediate and petty desires
104 105

Ibid. Gramsci. Letters from Prison. Ed. Rosengarten. Vol. 1. 369. The letter is dated December 15, 1930. 106 La filosofia della praxis una riforma e uno sviluppo dello hegelismo, una filosofia liberata (o che cerca liberarsi [sic]) da ogni elemento ideologico unilaterale e fanatico, la coscienza piena delle contraddizioni, in cui lo stesso filosofo, inteso individualmente o inteso come intero gruppo sociale, non solo comprende le contraddizioni ma pone se stesso come elemento delle contraddizioni, eleva questo elemento a principio di conoscenza e quindi di azione. Q 11, 62. 1487.

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and passions. 108 Dante also held existential and biographical importance for Gramsci. Indeed, the books he firstly requested after he was brought to the Regina Coeli prison in 1926 were: a German grammar; his own copy of the Breviario di neolinguistica by Giulio Bertoni and Matteo Bartoli; and Dantes Comedy. 109 It is interesting that in the letter to his landlady Gramsci recalls precisely the locations in which to find the three books in his apartment. Only the Comedy was not in the apartment, since Gramsci had lent it. The fact that the prisoner wanted the Comedy, though unavailable in the apartment (and to be bought by the landlady a request that Gramsci conveys very gently110 ) provides further evidence that reading Dante in prison was important for him. Gramscis interest in Dante originated during his years at the University of Torino, as a student of the Dante scholar Umberto Cosmo, and lasted throughout his life. Indeed, among Gramscis requests for books during difficult moments of his life in prison, we find titles such as Michele Barbis Dante: Vita, Opere e Fortuna.111 In addition, Dantes name is mentioned not only at the very beginning of the Prison Notebooks, but also in its final pages, in Notebook 29, note 7 (1935). His first publication on Inferno 10 is dated 1918 the same year in which he wrote his article on Esperanto and the questione della lingua in Manzoni. In this year Gramsci wrote a small article entitled Il cieco Tiresia (The Blind Tiresias), which was
107 108

Q 13, 17. 1581. See Q 4, 16. According to Croce, Antonio Labriola was the first to be aware of the need to contrast teleological historiographies made up of historical schemes or, in Croces parlance, storie a disegno. See Croce. Storia della storiografia italiana del secolo decimonono. 222-238. 109 See letter to his landlady in November 1926. Letters from Prison. Ed. Rosengarten. Vol. 1. 35. 110 Gramscis request is formulated as follows: gratissimo le sarei se mi inviasse una Divina Commedia di pochi soldi, perch il mio testo lo avevo imprestato. Emphasis mine. 111 Gramsci. Letters from Prison. Ed. Rosengarten. Vol. 2. 284-5. Letter to Tania, dated April 3, 1933.

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published in the socialist newspaper LAvanti! Gramsci wrote this article when he heard that a boy in a small village of the Marche and a girl housed in the Pia Casa del Cottolengo, after predicting 1918 as the year of the end of the First World War, were struck by blindness. In order to explain the agglomerate of cultural fragments embodied in this story, Gramsci briefly mentions his main ideas on Inferno 10. Ten years later, in prison, Gramsci felt the need to recast and expand these ideas by highlighting in particular the role and position of Cavalcante in the structure of the Comedy. As Gramsci admitted in a letter to Tania, he started focusing on Inf. 10 after reading a review of Isidoro del Lungos edition of the Chronicle by Giovanni Villani. 112 According to Gramsci it was curious that del Lungo did not use Inf. 10 to establish the date of Guido Cavalcantis death. The most important period in which Gramsci shows continuous interest in the tenth canto of Inferno is between December 1928 and 1932. In a letter dated December 17, 1928, to his sister-in-law Tatiana, Gramsci asked her to send him a copy of Vincenzo Morellos essay on the tenth of Inferno, and after eight months, in August 26, 1929, he again asked her to send him the same essay, mentioning his objective to write more systematically a note on a little discovery he had had regarding Dante. This period is of paramount importance: it is also the moment in which he began to write the Prison Notebooks. 113 On the first page of the first Prison Notebook, dated February 8, 1929, Gramsci outlines sixteen research topics for his intellectual work while
112 113

See Pio Rajna. Isidoro del Lungo e la Cronica di D. Compagni. Il Marzocco 20 (May 15, 1927). The composition of the notes on the tenth canto of Inferno in Notebook 4 is discontinuous. Gramsci began writing the fourth notebook with the group of notes concerning Inferno 10 in 1930, but he finished it only in 1932, when he finally added the note entitled Shaw and Gordon Craig regarding the role of didascalies in theater works. See Gianni Francioni. Nota introduttiva al Quaderno 4 (19301932). In Antonio Gramsci. Quaderni del carcere. Edizione anastatica dei manoscritti. Ed. Gianni

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in prison. At the fifth he records Cavalcante Cavalcanti: la sua posizione nella economia/struttura e nellarte della Divina Commedia.114 The inclusion of the issue about Cavalcante prompts numerous questions: Why did Gramsci decide to insert this topic as a relevant issue to study and note down in the Prison Notebooks? What is the significance of this question in light of the constellation of topics included in the very first note of the Prison Notebooks? How is this issue connected to the other diverse subjects he planned to study and note down during his life in prison? Before answering these questions, it is important to look closely at the narrative of Inf. 10 and, then, to highlight the hermeneutic strategies Gramsci employs in his reading of the canto.

3. Inferno 10

Canto 10 begins narrating the pilgrims coming to the Infernal city of Dis. Entering the city, Virgil walks along a secret path, between the wall of the city and the torments115 followed by the pilgrim. In the Infernal city considered in the canto as a
Francioni. Vol. 8. Cagliari-Roma: Treccani-LUnione Sarda, 2009. 1-13. In the manuscript the word structure substitutes economy that Gramsci crossed out. I write economia/struttura to point out this terminological shift, which is certainly relevant. Arguably, Gramsci changed the term economy to structure to address his critique of Croce in a more direct way. The terminological shift between economy and structure suggests that Gramscis critique of Croces reading of Dante parallels his critique of Croces reading of Marx. Yet, it is curious that in this note Gramsci does not use Croces term poetry, but the more general one of art. In other words, Gramscis reading of Inferno 10 entails the question of the relationships between structure (economy, language, and theoretical framework) and superstructure (art and culture). 115 Inf. 10.1-2.
114

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blind prison,116 where, arguably, blind also refers to heresy , in the sixth circle of the Hell, is a valley of tombs, in which Epicurus and more than a thousand117 of his followers have their cemetery.118 The punished people in the canto are heretics and, in particular, those who made the soul die with the body.119 The exchange between Virgil and Dante, through which the pilgrim and the reader learn the location of the scene and the damned there, is abruptly interrupted by dark o-sounds of O Tosco120 that came forth from one of the arks. This voice frightens Dante, who shrinks closer to his guide Virgil. Forced by him to turn his face to Farinata who has stood erect, Dante describes Farinata as an overshadowing, proud and imposing figure as if he had Hell in great disdain (35-36). Farinata, whose baptismal name was Manente degli Uberti, a Florentine Ghibelline party leader and captain who died in 1264 closely before Dantes birth, recognizes Dante as a Tuscan from his accent. According to Farinata, Dantes speech makes him manifest as a native of Florence, that noble fatherland to which perhaps [Farinata] was too harmful (26-27). Dante and Farinatas interaction in this canto, as seen through their dialogues, is fragmented. The voices of the characters permit then the possibility of meeting, recognizing, and speaking to each other. Dantes voice seems to incorporate the resurrecting power of Christs speech before Lazarus. Indeed, Dantes voice in this canto is charged with a similar power: every time he speaks, a new character appears from the tombs. His voice resurrects Farinata and makes him willing to talk with the pilgrim, and,
116 117

Inf. 10.58. Inf. 10.118. 118 Inf. 10.13. 119 Inf. 10.15. 120 Erich Auerbach. Farinata and Cavalcante. In Mimesis. The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. Trans. Willard Trask. New York: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1957. 153.

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again, after Dantes first reply to Farinata, Cavalcante suddenly rises up with a series of questions. The pilgrims reply to Farinata wounds his Ghibelline pride in recalling the fact that Farinata did not fully eliminate the presence of the Guelf party (to which Dante belonged), but moved the Guelfs out of Florence only temporarily. Then, as Dante himself powerfully states using a dramatically arresting then,121 another damned figure rises up, stopping finally in a kneeling posture resembling that of a prayer. Cavalcante Cavalcanti is this figures unspoken name. 122 With his posture of a supplicant to Christ/God and, at the same time, using a formula similar to that used by God when he asks Cain Where is your brother? 123, Cavalcante doubtfully asks Dante where his son Guido is and why he is not with him. Dantes answer sounds enigmatic: Da me stesso non vegno: colui chattende l per qui mi mena forse cui Guido vostro ebbe a disdegno.124 The verb ebbe in the past tense and a delay in Dantes answer, which
121 122

Ibid. 157. Contrary to Manente degli Ubertis nickname Farinata, a derivation from farina (flour) that recalls the humble rural and gastronomic spheres, the name Cavalcante, recalling the action and practice of riding, expresses an affiliation to chivalry and a sign of nobility. In searching through the database of the Opera del Vocabolario Italiano (OVI), we find the gastronomic noun farinata, for instance, in Rustico Filippis Rime, sonata 4; in administrative documents of Dantes period, see Registro di Entrata e Uscita di Santa Maria di Cafaggio (REU) 1286-1290. Ed. Eugenio M. Casalini. Firenze: Convento della SS. Annunziata, 1998. 217; in an anonymous Florentine volgarizzatore of Senecas epistles, see Volgarizzamento delle Pistole di Seneca e del Trattato della Provvidenza di Dio. Ed. Giovanni Bottari. Firenze, 1717. 37 and 45. From this perspective it is interesting to notice that the first place Dante mentions Farinata is in Inf. 6.79. In this verse Farinatas name matches that of Tegghiaio, which, like Farinata, is a noun linked to gastronomy. In fact, tegghiaio is the producer of pans and griddles (tegghia). But, in Inf. 10, through an ironic play, the names of Cavalcante and Farinata do not represent the figural aspects of the characters they name. Farinata is no humble rural figure, but a magnanimous and proud Florentine public figure, a political leader and military man; Cavalcante, on the contrary, is not represented as a noble knight, but a humble praying father suffering a private drama. 123 A similar formula is in Aeneid 3.312, aut, si lux alma recessit, Hector ubi est? 124 Inf. 10.61-63.

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Cavalcante misinterprets as a ominous sign, wrongly induce Cavalcante to think that his son has died. At that moment, he dramatically disappears, sinking supine back in his tomb. As in framing a new shot in a movie comprising fragments of different stories, Dante, with a dramatic but at the verse 73, suddenly changes scene, reintroducing the magnanimous (v. 73) Farinata, who continues to talk to Dante without regard to the events related to Cavalcante. Indeed, Farinata did not change his expression, / nor move his neck, nor bend his side. 125 Emotionless towards Cavalcante, Farinata continues his talk with Dante about the political art of returning home from exile. In the shadow of this art also lies the historical significance of Farinata, who is described by Giovanni Villanis Chronicle as the good man and citizen thanks to whom the city of Florence escaped the great fury, and destruction, and ruin 126 perpetrated by the Ghibelline league of Tuscany headed by the cities of Siena and Lucca the two cities that rivaled Florence at that time. The strongest torment for Farinata, he claims, is not Hell, but the fact that his family and his party did not learn the political art of returning to Florence from exile. Then, by using a similar argument about this political art, he foretells Dantes exile. After a few exchanges stimulated by Dantes questioning, Farinata explains that the damned of the sixth circle cannot know the present time, but only the future. [Dante] El par che voi veggiate, se ben odo, Dinanzi quel che l tempo seco adduce, e nel presente tenete altro modo. [Farinata] Noi veggiam, come quei cha mala luce,
125 126

Inf. 10.73-75. See Villani. Cronica 6.81, quoted from Paget Toynbee. Dante Alighieri: His Life and Works. Ed. Charles Singleton. New York: Harper and Row, 1965. 26-27.

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le cose disse che ne son lontano; cotanto ancor ne splende il sommo duce. Quando sappressano o son, tutto vano nostro intelletto; e saltri non ci apporta, nulla sapem di vostro stato umano. Per comprender puoi che tutta morta fia nostra conoscenza da quel punto che del futuro fia chiusa la porta.127 With another forcefully contrapuntal then, Dante wants to turn the discourse back to Cavalcantes drama, as if repentant of [his] fault (v.109). Thus, the pilgrim tells Farinata to say to Cavalcante that his son Guido is alive and that he (Dante) was silent before replying to Cavalcantes original question (v. 112) only because he was already thinking about Cavalcantes misconception. As I will show shortly, for Gramsci, this last section of the canto is key to understanding Cavalcantes position in the structure of the Comedy and the drama in act Dante represents in this canto through Cavalcantes torments, whose conceptual justifications are clarified in the final part of the canto by the explicator Farinata.

4. Before Gramsci: De Sanctis and Croce

The most important references for Gramscis reading of Inferno 10 are Francesco De Sanctiss Il Farinata di Dante (1869) and Benedetto Croces La poesia di Dante (1921). Gramsci recalls these two essays in his letter to his sister-in-law Tania dated September 20, 1931, in which he argues that in his essay on Farinata, De Sanctis remarks on the harshness that characterizes the tenth canto of Dantes Inferno because Farinata, after having been depicted heroically in the first part of the episode, in the final part becomes a pedagogue,
127

Inf. 10.97-108.

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that is, to use Crocean terms, Farinata after having been poetry becomes structure.128 It is curious that Gramsci attributes to De Sanctis the idea that Farinata in the final part of the canto becomes a pedagogue. Actually, if we read De Sanctiss essay closely we do not find such an idea, or at least we do not find that De Sanctis expressed it through the clear contrast Gramsci makes with regard to the two parts of the Canto. De Sanctiss essay begins with the depiction of a moment in which he finds himself arrested by the colossal conception129 expressed by the figure of Farinata. Followed by the following two questions, What was in Dantes soul when he conceived this image? What feelings, what opinions affected him and set his imagination afire? 130, De Sanctiss approach to the canto is driven by a Romantic view of the passions and emotions that led Dante to produce Farinatas colossal image. This approach also sheds light on the reasons why for De Sanctis Inferno 10 is Farinatas canto as the title of his essay also suggests. The key notion leading De Sanctiss interpretation is that il concetto del virile la Musa del sublime dantesco131 and Farinata is one of its best expressions: In Farinata luomo comparisce per la prima volta sul moderno orizzonte poetico.132 According to De Sanctis, Dantes sorrow over Farinatas exile is tempered by his love for the fatherland (amor della patria133). This noble feeling of love for the
128 129

Gramsci. Letters from Prison. Ed. Rosengarten. Vol. 2. 73-74. De Sanctis. Farinata. In De Sanctis on Dante. Madison: The U of Wisconsin P, 1957. 53. 130 Ibid. I have changed the word mind in Rossi and Galpins translation into soul, accordingly to the Italian original anima in the passage. 131 De Sanctis. Il Farinata di Dante. 369. 132 Ibid. 372. Notions of great man and human (umano) paradigmatically grounded RomanticDesanctisan readings of Dante. See Aldo Vallone. Storia della Critica Dantesca dal XIV al XX Secolo. Vol. 2. Padova: Vallardi, 1981. 886. 133 De Sanctis. Il Farinata di Dante. 366. De Sanctis here is surely thinking to Perticaris and Mazzinis

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fatherland an expression evidently related to Risorgimento values is the background element through which the figure of Farinata becomes central in De Sanctiss reading. By using the topical distinction between contemplative and active life, 134 De Sanctis considers Dante himself both as an example of the contemplative great man whose model was Saint Francis and an instance of the active great man whose model was Farinata. According to De Sanctis, in the Comedy sono in presenza due mondi irreconciliabili, un mondo teocratico-feudale, che ha per dogma lannullamento della personalit ed il mondo del comune libero, dove la personalit tutto. L hai un mondo lirico-didattico, dove luomo il santo che prega e contempla; qui hai un mondo epico-drammatico, dove luomo leroe che opera e lotta; nelluno luomo ancora involto nelloscura lotta del mito, e ci sta come genere anzi che come individuo perfetto; nellaltro luomo apparisce nel pieno possesso e nella piena coscienza di s stesso; luno il riflesso filosoficoartistico del passato; laltro il preludio della vita e dellarte moderna. 135 As this passage indicates, De Sanctis developed a typological reading of the canto grounded on the opposition between a lyrical-didactic and an epic-dramatic universe. The first universe is typical of the feudal-theocratic world of the Middle Ages, while the latter typifies the modern world. It is in this ideological framework that De Sanctis can conceive of Farinata as a sublime figure of the Comedy a colossal conception as he says at the beginning of his essay. In his own intentions, Benedetto Croce continued, developed, and theoretically reelaborated De Sanctiss work, as he declared in his Contributo per una critica di me stesso (1926). Evidence of Croces reliance on De Sanctis is, in my view, also expressed in his La Poesia di Dante, in which he mainly focuses on Farinata implying that he was
essays on Dantes amor patrio. See Giuseppe Mazzini. Dellamor patrio di Dante. In Opere. Ed. Luigi Salvatorelli. Milano: Rizzoli, 1967. 61-79; Giulio Perticari. Sullamore patrio di Dante e del suo libro intorno al volgare eloquio. Opere. Vol. 1. Napoli, 1856. 159-196. 134 In this respect, the entire episode of Matelda is central. See Purg. 27-28. 135 Francesco De Sanctis. Il Farinata di Dante. 368. Italics are mine.

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the main character of the canto and one of the most significant of the entire Comedy. Though both Croce and De Sanctis considered Farinata as a paradigmatic figure of the active great man, a significant difference between their readings is that while for Croce Farinata represents an exemplar lyrical-poetic figure, for De Sanctis he is an expression of the epic-dramatic. This difference, in my view, should be considered in light of a broader perspective regarding the relationship between literary criticism and cultural struggle. While Croces approach is aesthetic Gramsci observes De Sanctiss criticism is militant not frigidly aesthetic: it belongs to a period of cultural struggle. The analyses of content, the criticism of the structure of works that is, the logical and living-historical coherence of the mass of represented sentiments these are connected to the cultural struggle. 136 Taking into consideration both De Sanctiss and Croces dichotomous reasonings, I argue that Gramsci worked out a different solution that overcomes both De Sanctiss opposition between lyrical and epic and Croces division between structure and poetry. For Gramsci, the lyrical value of poetry is embedded in Dantes artistic capacity to express the dramas in the poem and it is not separable from the Comedys architecture comprising allegorical, didactic, and conceptual elements, which Croce had called the structure. In this sense, in transcending both emphases on the epic (De Sanctis) and the lyrical (Croce), Gramsci seems to recuperate a notion of dramatic poetry, which Hegel
136

Q 4, 5. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 2. 145. According to Gerratanas edition which Buttigieg follows this note precedes the series of notes under the rubric Il canto decimo dellInferno. However in the original manuscript, this note (Q 4, 5 according to Gerratana) follows the notes on Inf. 10, which are in fact the very first notes of the fourth notebook. In this respect, the contrast between Croce and De Sanctis outlined in Q 4, 5, arguably follows from Gramscis critique of Croces interpretation of Dante. Gramscis emphasis on the criticism of the structure seems to give support to this hypothesis.

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defined as the form of art able to unify epic and lyric. 137 Moreover, As Gramsci already pointed out in his 1918 article Il cieco Tiresia, in depicting the damned, Dante shows himself to be a learned poet, who knows that the popular imagination needs immediacy of expression. The depiction of the cantos characters through statuesque postures is thus apt at conveying a sense of drama in the most immediate way. In this respect, Gramscis reading of Inf. 10 intersects topics 4, 7, 13 outlined in the first page of the Prison Notebooks concerning popular literature, folklore, and common sense. In addition, De Sanctis contrasted Farinata a figure of the active great man with Saint Francis the contemplative man and model of the lyrical-didactic character. Despite the differences between Croce and De Sanctis, both of them articulate a linear interpretation in which they positively recognize Farinata as the central figure of this canto. Gramsci overturns De Sanctiss and Croces linear reading by arguing that Dante represents the figure of Farinata and his torment negatively. In doing so, Gramsci also radically reverses the dialectical relation between Farinata and Cavalcante. As he wrote to his sister-in-law Tania on September 20, 1931, Traditionally, the tenth canto is Farinatas canto, hence the harshness noted by De Sanctis has always appeared plausible. I maintain that two dramas are played out in the tenth canto: Farinatas and Cavalcantes and not Farinatas drama alone. [...] It is strange that Dante hermeneutics, though so minute and Byzantine, has never noticed that Cavalcante is the one among the Epicureans of the fiery tombs who is truly punished, I say punished with an immediate and personal punishment, and that Farinata closely participates in this punishment, but also in this instance as if
137

See Friedrich Hegel. Aesthetics: Lectures on Fine Art. Trans. T. M. Knox. Vol. 2. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1975. 1158-1237, in particular 1158-9: Because drama has been developed into the most perfect totality of content and form, it must be regarded as the highest stage of poetry and or art generally. [] of the particular arts of speech dramatic poetry is the one which unites the objectivity of epic with the subjective character of lyric. It displays a complete action as actually taking place before our eyes; the action originates in the minds of the characters who bring it about, but at the same time its outcome is decided by the really substantive nature of the aims, individuals, and collisions involved.

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he had great scorn of heaven. The law of retribution in Cavalcante and Farinata is this: for having wished to see into the future, they (theoretically) are deprived of the knowledge of earthly things for a certain specific period of time, that is, they live in a cone of darkness from whose center they can look both into the past and the future but only beyond a certain perimeter. [...] We can see here the difference between Cavalcante and Farinata. When the latter hears Florentine spoken, he becomes a partisan again, the Ghibelline hero, while Cavalcante thinks only of Guido and hearing Florentine spoken rises up to find whether Guido is alive or dead at that moment138 Thus, in this canto, Gramsci did not see only one drama, but two interconnected and interdependent dramas, which are understandable only through Cavalcantes intervention. According to Gramsci, the central figure of the canto is not Farinata, as De Sanctis and Croce stated, but Cavalcante. This change of accent in reading the canto also allows Gramsci to mortally wound 139 as Gramsci himself vividly observes Croces theoretical distinction between stucture and poetry.

5. Gramscis Aesthetics, Dantes Dramatization, and Medeas Veil

In most interpretations of Inferno 10, for Gramsci, Farinata ammirato per il plastico atteggiarsi della sua fierezza, per il suo giganteggiare nellorrore infernale. Cavalcante trascurato; eppure egli colpito a morte da una parola: egli ebbe, che gli fa credere suo figlio essere morto. Egli non conosce il presente: vede il futuro e nel futuro il figlio morto; e nel presente? Dubbio torturante, punizione tremenda in questo dubbio, dramma altissimo che si consuma in poche parole. Ma dramma difficile, complicato, che per essere compreso ha bisogno di riflessione e ragionamento; che agghiaccia dorrore per la sua rapidit e intensit, ma dopo esame critico.140 To reach an accurate understanding of the drama represented in the canto Gramsci
138 139

Gramsci. Letters from Prison. Ed. Rosengarten. Vol. 2. 74. Gramsci himself used this vivid expression that recalls dramatic situations such as the infantices by Ugolino and Medea, which are recalled by Gramsci in his letter to Tania dated September 20, 1931. As Gramsci stated, his interpretation mortally wounds Croces thesis on the poetry and structure of the Divine Comedy. See the entire letter in Letters from Prison. Vol. 2. 74-76. 140 Gramsci. Il cieco Tiresia. In La citt futura. Ed. Sergio Caprioglio. Torino: Einaudi, 1982. 824.

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calls for a careful critical examination of Dantes text. The type of critical scrutiny indicated in this passage does not only match a desire of Gramsci the reader, but also corresponds to the efforts Dante the poet generally requires of his readers. Indeed, Dante himself at the verses 61-63 of canto 9 invites those who have li ntelletti sani, to look at the doctrine che sasconde / sotto l velame de li versi strani. 141 The multi-accentual142 dynamics Dante represents in canto 10, and in other moments in the Comedy, are poetically built through symbolic interrelationships between what is visible and what is veiled to the reader. Within the symbolic relationships among the suggested dramatic forces at play in canto 10, Cavalcante embodies and expresses, on one hand, a sense of subalternity with respect to the domineering and magnanimous figure of the Ghibelline leader Farinata and, on the other hand, his private and immediate sorrows as a father, who is not able to see the present, and thus is worried about whether his son is dead or alive. Traditionally, this canto has been interpreted as an eminently political one. Gramsci was particularly critical of this interpretation. In fact, he harshly critiqued Vincenzo Morellos book Dante, Farinata e Cavalcanti, a book that was praised at that time for its originality and novelty. By contrast, according to Gramsci, the political interpretation expressed by Morello is grounded in the very old-fashioned question of
Emphasis mine (except for the adjective difficile, italicized in the original). You who have sound intellects, gaze on the teaching that is hidden beneath the veil of the strange verses. Dante. Inferno. Ed. and trans. Robert Durling. NewYork-Oxford: Oxford UP, 1996. 143. 142 Gramsci himself suggests reading the accents in the canto dynamics, when he argues that the aesthetic and dramatic accent of the verse 63 primarily falls on the verb ebbe and not on cui or disdegno. Q 4, 82. For the concept of meaning as accent see also the work (very close to Gramscis) V. N. Voloinov. Marxism and the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1986. For a discussion on Gramsci and Voloinov, and on the notion of multi-accentual dimension of language see also Peter Ives. Gramscis Politics of Language: Engaging the Bakhtin Circle and the Frankfurt School. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 2004; Renate Holub. Antonio Gramsci: Beyond Marxism and Postmodernism. London-New York: Routledge, 1992.
141

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whether Dante was a Guelf or a Ghibelline. For Morello, Dante was essentially a Ghibelline, and Farinata is his hero; Dante, however, was a Ghibelline in the same manner as Farinata: in other words, a politician more than a party man. 143 In critiquing Morellos essay which Gramsci defined as third-rate literature144 around the Comedy Gramsci here espouses a position similar to that of Giuseppe Mazzini, who, in his 1844 essay on Dante written for the Italian workers in London, shows the need to absolve Dante from the traditional question of his Guelfism or Ghibellinism. 145 In addition, we also find a similar critique to this political approach in De Sanctis. 146 In a way, Gramsci recasts De Sanctiss critique, but he goes further when he moves the emphasis from the question about Dantes political allegiance to that about the meaning of the political with regard to Dante. For Gramsci, Dante was essentially an intellectual, and, faced with the question of whether Dante was a Guelf or a Ghibelline, he argued that One can say whatever one wants. In reality, Dante, as he himself says, was party unto himself; he was basically an intellectual, and his sectarianism and partisanship were more intellectual than political in the immediate sense. Besides, Dantes political position could only be determined by a most detailed analysis not only of all his writings but also of the political divisions of his time, which were very different from what they had been fifty years earlier. Morello is much too entangled in literary rhetoric to be able to have a realistic understanding of the political position of the men of the Middle Ages vis--vis the empire, the papacy, and their republican commune. 147
143 144

Q 4, 83. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 2. 254. The Italian expression sounds letteratura dappendice which recalls the topic number 4 of the plan outlined in the first note of the Prison Notebooks, i.e. La letteratura popolare dei romanzi dappendice e le ragioni della sua persistente fortuna. (The popular literature of serial novels and the reasons for its continued success). Ibid. 145 Mazzini claims that il vero che Dante non fu Guelfo n Ghibellino, ma comegli dice in un verso del suo poema, sera fatto parte per s stesso. Le idee di Dante erano ben altre e pi ardite che non quelle dei Guelfi o dei Ghibellini. Giuseppe Mazzini. Dante. In Dante Alighieri. La Commedia. Milano: Istituto Editoriale Italiano, n.d. 10. 146 See Q 4, 83. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 2. 252. 147 Ibid. 254. Emphasis mine.

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In the first of note of the rubric Il canto decimo dellInferno, which opens Q 4 (in my view, one of the most complicated notes of the Notebooks),148 Gramsci himself suggests adopting the double bind between the concealed and the revealed as a hermeneutic approach to the Divine Comedy.149 He suggests this by including in his reading of this canto a reflection on a Pompeian picture of Medea, which portrays her blindfolded. Gramsci also discusses this picture in a letter dated September 20, 1931, in which he recalls an art history class taught by Prof. Toesca that he attended in 1912. In this class, Toesca presented the Pompeian picture of Medea and explained that Lessing in his Laocon did not consider the artists decision to veil Medeas eyes as an artificio da impotenti, but as the best way di dare limpressione dellinfinito dolore di un genitore, che rappresentato materialmente si sarebbe cristallizato in una smorfia. In Q 4, 80, recalling how Pliny records that when Timanthes of Sicyon painted the scene of the sacrifice of Iphigenia, he portrayed Agamemnon as veiled, 150 Gramsci again reflects on Lessings interpretation of the artists masterful decision to veil Medeas eyes. At the same time, Gramsci considers the Pompeian picture of Medea as analogous to a painting of Agamemnons suffering recorded by Pliny the Elder. However, as Frank Rosengarten has pointed out, there is no Pompeian fresco depicting Medea killing her children. For Rosengarten, it is curious and psychologically significant perhaps that Gramsci cites another analogy with veiled suffering in painting that turns out to be
148

According to the original manuscript, Q 4, 1. According to Gerratanas edition, which reverses the first with second half of Notebook 4, Q 4, 78. For pragmatic reasons, I follow Gerratanas numeration. 149 Foscolo highlighted the concrete dimension of Dantes images and insights. It is also important to notice that Foscolo pointed out the double bind between visible and hidden in the Comedy. As Foscolo says, Dantes images are the bold and prominent figures of an alto rilievo, which, it seems, we might almost touch, and of which the imagination readily supplies those parts that are hidden from the view. Foscolo. A Parallel between Dante and Petrarch. Milano-Napoli: Ricciardi, 1974. 1773. Renate Holub highlighted the connections between Gramscis reading of Dante and phenomenology.

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incorrect.151 In elaborating Rosengartens point, we may note that, even if philologically problematic, Gramscis mistake provides us with at least two interesting possibilities. First, both in the imagined Pompeian picture of Medea and in Inf. 10 a continuous process of reversal between visible and veiled is in play. Moreover, the several communicative breaks and counterpoints expressed among the performing figures of the canto (Dante, Farinata, Cavalcante, and Virgil) are some of the symptoms of this play. Second, analogously to the picture of Medea, this canto expresses several interconnections among liminal moments: between the blind parent and child(ren), between life and death, between the expressed and the unexpressed, between structure and poetry, between obscurity in the present and knowledge of past and future. Being half visible and half covered by the tomb, even Cavalcantes postures embody the symbolic play between visible and veiled. The dialectic relationship between revealed and concealed surely lies at the core of Cavalcantes intervention in the canto narrative. The dialectic and contrapuntal interplay of visible and invisible is here not only an aesthetic dimension within the cantos narrative, but also the method the reader should employ in order to understand the dynamics that connect the various figures of the canto. In the end, for Gramsci, Cavalcantes drama centers on his blindness and inability to see the present. As Gramsci expresses in his note on Il cieco Tiresia, both popular and literary codes indicate that traditionally the prophet is represented as able to
150 151

Q 4, 80. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 2. 248. Frank Rosengarten. Gramscis Little Discovery: Gramscis Interpretation of Canto X of Dantes Inferno. Boundary 2 14.3 (1986): 81-82.

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see the past and the future, but is blind in the present.152 Similarly, Cavalcante does not know the present and, in absence of this knowledge, considers his son as if he were dead. Gramsci seems to be aware that the issue of how to articulate the chiastic relations among blindness and insight, the visible and the hidden was of paramount importance to Dante. In the Comedy, Conv. II.i.3, and the letter to Cangrande (still of disputed, though likely, authenticity), the Florentine poet himself invites the reader to sharpen his/her sight to see the various senses and meanings at play within and beyond the literal sense of his works. Gramsci seems to be aware that the readers gaze is crucial for Dante to understanding the allegorical nature of his writings. Thus, from a general viewpoint, Dantes notion of allegory is implied in Gramscis notes although in a nontheological and historicized direction. 153 In paralleling Inf. 10 with the Pompeian picture of Medea, Gramsci focuses on the following question: Is Dantes representation of the drama a confession of his limited poetic imagination or does it depend on a particular moral worldview? It is curious that this question has never come out in Gramsci studies concerning Inf. 10, in particular, if we take into account that this question is of paramount importance for understanding, on the one hand, the debate among Gramscis, Croces, and the other traditional political interpretations discussed earlier, and, on the other, Gramscis comparison of Manzonis moralistic self-censorship to Dantes free speech. In Q 4, 84, Gramsci expresses the question in a clear way when, by dealing with what Luigi Russo called renunciations of description, he clarified that one cannot
152 153

Q 4, 85. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 2. 255-256. On the contrary, Croce opposed allegorical approaches to the Comedy conditioning his reading of the poem, as Charles Singleton also emphasized later on. See Charles Singleton. Elements of Structure.

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speak of renunciations of description in Dante. These renunciations are, in negative form, full and sufficient expressions of everything that is really astir within the poet.154 More specifically, Russo criticized, on the one side, Guzzo for his use of the renunciations of description in order to evaluate Dantes poetry in light of his psychological status expressed in the poem155, and, on the other, Vossler for using the renunciations to propose a hierarchy of importance among the three canticles of the Comedy. In addition, in his La poesia di Dante, Croce and my hypothesis is that Gramsci in this note was implicitly thinking of him also employed a psychologistic approach when he interpreted the obstacles that the pilgrim Dante encountered in the first cantos of the Comedy as a mirror of the poets difficulty in beginning the poem. 156 By contrast, in rejecting idealist and psychologizing critical approaches and developing Russos argument that Dantes renunciations are full and sufficient expressions of everything he wanted to express, Gramsci also agrees with De Sanctis, when he claims that sorrow is sublime when, at some unexpected news, the various emotions cluster and crown in sudden confusion within the mind, overwhelm and prostrate it. To say that our sorrow was inexpressible, ineffable, unspeakable; to say that tears failed our eyes, words our tongue, is to use commonplace phrases that have lost their efficacy. If you wish to give sublimity to the inexpressible, you must express it. If you wish to make size sublime, show me a Pyramid. If you wish to make sorrow sublime, cover with a veil the head of Agamemnon before Iphigenias sacrifice, or describe a man falling suddenly like a dead body; and, above all, conceal it from my sight, for the less I see, the more I imagine. Of this nature is the sudden fall of Cavalcante, then the silence of the tomb 157 Gramscis reading here shares De Sanctiss insight, but, goes further because
Dante Studies. 1 (1954) and Journey to Beatrice. Dante Studies. 2 (1958). Q 4, 84. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 2. 255. 155 See A. Guzzo. Il Paradiso e la critica del De Sanctis. In Rivista dItalia (November 1924): 456-479. 156 As Croce posits it, the first canto especially gives the sensation of effort, with that midst of the pathway of life, where we find ourselves in a wood that is not a wood and see a hill that is not a hill and gaze upon a sun that is not the sun See Croce. The Poetry of Dante. Trans. Douglas Ainslie. Mamaroneck, NY: Appel, 1971. 102-104.
154

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itreevaluates Cavalcantes position in the structure of the Comedy. Dante did not renounce describing Cavalcantes sorrow, but rather suggested it. The absence of a description of Cavalcantes sorrow is thus to be conceived not as a limit to Dantes lyricism, but as the best way to express the sublime sorrow of the damned. Moreover, the question of the renunciations of description allows Gramsci to highlight, by means of contrast, the intellectual attitudes of Dante and Manzoni. In the note entitled Critica dellinespresso? (Criticism of the unexpressed?), Gramsci discusses whether Dantes intention in suggesting (i.e. revealing-and-covering at the same time) Cavalcantes pathos is similar or not to Manzonis practice in the Promessi sposi of omitting references to sexual desires, stimulating readers to imagine them for themselves. Gramsci asks whether one can reconstruct and criticize a poem other than in the world of concrete expression, of historically realized language.158 Answering his own question, Gramsci claims that it was not a voluntary factor of a practical or intellective nature that clipped Dantes wings. He flew with the wings he had, so to speak, and he did not forgo anything voluntarily.159 In other words, in contrast to idealists arguments about Dantes limited lyricism, for Gramsci, Dantes poem expresses his world without voluntarily rejecting anything, for specific moral, psychological, or even political reasons. Consequently, Gramsci rejects the political interpretation according to which the real protagonist of the canto is the Ghibelline Farinata because Dante himself was a Ghibelline. On the contrary, Gramsci contends that the central dramatic figure is
157 158

Francesco De Sanctis. Farinata. 80-81. Q 4, 79. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 2. 248. Emphasis mine. 159 Ibid.

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Cavalcante because of his sorrow and immediate passions and Dantes position is thus to be placed beyond the simplifying distinction between Guelfs and Ghibellines. As Gramsci points out by implicitly rephrasing what Cacciaguida says to the pilgrim in Par. 17.68-69 Dante fece parte per se stesso. Therefore, I argue, Gramsci invites the reader to keep always in mind the philological method of reading Dante through his own words in light of the specific historical context of his writings. That is, reading between the lines, Gramsci suggests making all efforts to read disinterested.

6. Counterpoint and Criticism in Gramscis Reading

Along with Erich Auerbach, 160 Gramsci proposes a contrapuntal and historicist reading of the canto. By reflecting on his idea of writing about Inf. 10, in a letter to Tania (February 22, 1932), Gramsci himself uses the concept of counterpoint to deal with the relationship between Farinata and Cavalcante. More recently and from another point of view, I again thought about that idea when reading Croces book Poesia di Dante [Dantes poetry], in which reference is made to the Cavalcante episode in such a manner as to imply that Farinatas counterpoint is not taken into account.161 From a general perspective, the fact that the figures Dante encounters in this canto are contrapuntally interrelated cannot be considered as irrelevant for Gramscis decision
160

See Erich Auerbach. Mimesis. 155-156. Despite this rapid succession of scenes, there is no question of any parataxis in Dantes style. [] The scenes are not set stiffly side by side and in the same key [] they rise from the depths as particular forms of momentary prevailing tonality and stand in contrapuntal relation to one another. And writing about Farinatas exchange with Dante, Auerbach restates the same point saying that there is no question, then, of any straight-forward paratactic attaching of the Farinata scene to the conversation of the two travelers. [] it is so strong, so violent, so overpowering an interruption of a different realm - in the local, ethical, psychological, and aesthetic senses - that its connection with what precedes is no mere juxtaposition but the vital relationship of counterpoint, of the sudden breaking in of something dimly foreboded. The events are not [] divided into little parcels; they live together, despite their contrast and actually because of it. Italics are mine. 161 Gramsci. Letters. Ed. Rosengarten. Vol. 2. 140. Italics mine.

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to write on this canto and not on another one. In contrast, it is noteworthy that a doctrinal canto such as Purgatorio 6 was of particular interest for Fascists; memorable from this perspective is Giovanni Gentiles interpretation of Sordellos canto as the canto della patria.162 De Sanctiss and Croces interpretations left Cavalcante in a shadow of his own, making him a secondary figure. In Gramscis reading, the shift of emphasis from Farinata to Cavalcante is realized through more attentive philological study and criticism with the result that what was previously subordinated is placed in the foreground and made the center of a new ideological and theoretical complex. 163 For Gramsci, Dante suggests Cavalcantes drama through a complex logical mechanism in which Cavalcantes punishment and his human incapacity to contextualize Dantes use of the verb ebbe in the past tense converge. Dantes emphasis on the past tense of the verb ebbe at verses 63-68 is part of the structural and linguistic construction of the poem.164 The particular focus on language which, Gramsci also considered structure and technique165 leads Gramsci to radically confute Croces hermeneutic separation between structure and poetry. Dante scholar Umberto Cosmo one of Gramscis professors at the University of Torino , in a passionate letter to his former student dated December 29, 1931, wrote that
162

See Giovanni Gentile. Il canto VI del Purgatorio. In Lectura Dantis, Firenze: Sansoni, 1940, reprinted in Studi su Dante. Ed Vito A. Bellezza. Firenze: Sansoni, 1965. 230. 163 Q 8, 195. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 3. 347. 164 This idea also mirrors Gramscis contentions in Q 4, 82 and Q 5, 151, in which Gramsci praises the method engaged by Enrico Sicardi when, in his book La lingua italiana in Dante, he insists on the necessity to study the languages used by writers. 165 Ogni espressione culturale, ogni attivit morale e intellettuale ha una sua lingua storicamente determinata: questa lingua ci che si chiama anche tecnica e anche struttura. Q 23, 7. 2193. Emphasis mine. On this note see also Stefano Selenu. Ideas: Un sentiero gramsciano verso la lingua sarda. Sassari: EDES, forthcoming; and Grammatica, logica e storia in Antonio Gramsci. In Mauro Pala, ed. Americanismi.

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mi pare che lamico nostro [Gramsci] abbia colpito giusto, e qualche cosa che si avvicinava alla sua interpretazione ho sempre insegnato anchio. Accanto al dramma di Farinata c anche il dramma di Cavalcante, e male hanno fatto i critici, e fanno, a lasciarlo nellombra. Lamico farebbe dunque opera ottima a lumeggiarlo. Ma per lumeggiarlo bisognerebbe discendere un po pi nellanima medievale. Ognuno dei due, Farinata e Cavalcante, soffre il suo dramma. Ma il proprio dramma non tocca laltro. Sono legati dalla parentela dei figli, ma sono di parte avversa. Perci non sincontrano. la loro forza come dramatis personae; il loro torto come uomini.166 Despite Cosmos appreciations of Gramscis interpretation, in the second part of the letter he doubted that such an approach could refute Croces distinction between structure and poetry.167 Gramsci did not reply directly to Cosmo articulating a critical answer, but left the question unsolved, stating with evident sarcasm168 that the literature on Dante is so plethoric and prolix that the only justification for writing something on the subject would, it seems to me, be that of saying something truly new, with the greatest possible precision and the fewest possible words. I feel that Professor Cosmo himself suffers somewhat from the professional disease of the Dante specialists; if his suggestions were followed to the letter one would have to write an entire book. Im satisfied to know that the interpretation of the canto I have outlined is relatively new and worthy of treatment; for my humanity as an incarcerated man this is enough to encourage me to distill a few pages of notes that will not a priori seem a superfluity to me. 169 At the end of this letter, it is clear that Gramsci was still convinced that by considering Cavalcante the real dramatic figure of the canto and by moving the emphasis upon the linguistic dimension of the verb ebbe, he was able to invalidate Croces
166

Gramsci. Lettere dal carcere 1931-1937. Edited by Antonio A. Santucci. Palermo: Sellerio, 1996. 848. Italics mine. It is to be noticed that De Sanctis already criticqued Foscolos interpretation that tied Farinatas principal episode to Cavalcantes one through the argument of their kinship. De Sanctis defined these types of interpretation nuove miserie de comentatori (new miseries from the commentators). De Sanctis. Farinata. 81. 167 Gramsci. Lettere dal carcere. Ed. Santucci. 848-849. 168 Gramsci was particularly aware of sarcasm as a critical strategy. Il sarcasmo (come nel piano letterario ristretto delleducazione dei piccolo gruppi, lironia) appare pertanto come la componente letteraria di una serie di esigenze teoriche e pratiche che superficialmente possono apparire come insanabilmente contraddittorie; il suo elemento essenziale la passionalit che diventa criterio della potenza stilistica individuale (della sincerit, della profonda convinzione in opposto al pappagallismo e al meccani<ci>smo). Q 26, 5. 2301. 169 Gramsci. Letters from Prison. Ed. Rosengarten. Vol. 2. 152. This letter was sent to Tatiana Schucht and

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theoretical distinction between structure and poetry and conclude that without the structure there would be no poetry and therefore the structure too has poetic value. That is, without a deeper look at the linguistic and conceptual structure of Dantes poem, that poetry is impossible to appreciate. Gramsci substitutes Croces lyrically centered approach with a more dramatistic one.170 This type of approach leads to consider both the figures in the cantos narrative and the reader as performing their roles through the poem like actors on the stage. Both the cantos figures and the readers follow the stage directions which are part of the structure elaborated by the author and presented within the text. The readers final recreation of the poem is then the product of the complex interactions between the spontaneous representation in the readers mind and the authors directions deposited within the text. The authors directions do not only express his intentionality, but also limit and direct the readers arbitrary interpretations. In other words, Gramscis hermeneutics is neither reader-centered nor author-centered; it is rather open to intersubjective processes of meaning negotiated through interactions among language, text, and historical and ideological contexts. In this respect, Gramscis general reading approach is the same he suggests to his own readers in the first note of Notebook 4, i.e. the notebook in which he wrote most of his notes on Inf. 10. In this note he provides his future readers with the specific directions to discipline their reading of his prison writings. As Gramsci shows in his notes on Dante, this practice is crucial in Dantes work itself. From this perspective, an
dated March 21, 1932. Frank Rosengarten rightly highlighted Gramscis attention to the dramatic component of Dantes literary art. Frank Rosengarten. Gramscis Little Discovery. Boundary 2 14.3 (1986): 76.

170

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interplay between Gramscis and Dantes writings can be suggested. Gramscis reading of Dantes writing can be considered as a model for us to read Gramscis own writing. Indeed, analogously to Gramscis claim that Machiavellis and Marxs works are to be viewed as expressions of historical dramas, Dantes and Gramscis writings, in my view, could be seen both as a dramatic work of writing and a dramatistic labor of reading. In other words, they are actions and not simply objects on the stage of history, culture, and society. The lyrical-dramatic dimension of Inf. 10 works through a continuous counterpositioning of Farinata and Cavalcante. Thus, De Sanctiss ideologic distinction between the active hero and the contemplative saint is no longer a paradigmatic distinction for Gramsci. In fact, this distinction does not permit an understanding of the profound significance of Cavalcantes intervention in the canto, because it does not take into account its contrapuntal relationship with Farinata. In addition, this relationship is what Croces distinction between poetry and structure conditions us to overlook, because it leads us to read the canto as a linear representation of two independent figures. 171 Against Croces interpretation, Gramsci claims that Farinata is not important as a lyrical figure, but as a structural, didascalic, and instrumental means that allows Dante to express Cavalcantes profound torment in act.

171

Moreover, in his reply to Gramsci, by arguing that in this canto there are two parallel and separate dramas (Ognuno dei due, Farinata e Cavalcante, soffre il suo dramma. Ma il proprio dramma non tocca laltro), Umberto Cosmo followed De Sanctis and Croce, thus overlooking the most important innovation in Gramscis reading of the canto. Indeed, what Gramsci was highlighting was that in this canto Cavalcantes drama is not separate from Farinatas. On the contrary, for Gramsci, Dante represents their dramas as contrapuntally interconnected.

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7. Between Silence and Dialectic: Can Cavalcante speak?

In Gramscis criticism, the change in the relative weight attributed to Cavalcante not only modifies the meaning given to Cavalcante in the canto, but also the entire logic entailed in the way we read the canto. Gramscis reading not only is more attentive to the language and structure of the canto, but also conveys a non-lyricist notion of poetry at odds with Croces idealist one. While Croce conceives poetry as the lyrical expression of the poets feelings, Gramsci elaborates a notion of poetry as an expression of drama. Taking into consideration that Gramsci defined drama as the depiction of living people in a dramatic conflict172 an implicit link between poetry and dialectic is also at play in his interpretation of Dante. Indeed, if poetry is the expression of drama, and drama is inherently dialectical being expressions of conflicts ,173 we can argue that poetry is for Gramsci expression of dialectical forces which Croce understood as part of the conceptual structure. Therefore, the semantic shift in the notion of poetry from lyrical to dramatic also led Gramsci to invalidate Croces ideological division between poetry and structure. Yet, how does this semantic shift of poetry toward drama and dialectic relate to Gramscis contrapuntal view of Farinata and Cavalcante? In the Prison Notebooks, Gramsci delivers a particular vision of dialectic. As
172

See the entire letter in Letters from Prison. Ed. Rosengarten. Vol. 2. 74-76. This evokes Hegels definition of dramatic action. For Hegel a dramatic action rests entirely on collisions of circumstances, passions, and characters, and leads therefore to actions and then to the reactions which in turn necessitate a resolution of the conflict and discord. As this passage indicates, Hegels notion of dramatic action entails a specific dialectical structure composed of actions, reactions, and resolution.

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Italian philosopher Giuseppe Prestipino has observed, Gramscis dialectic is not triadic, but tetradic. From the tension between two opposed elements (thesis and antithesis), according to Gramscis notion of dialectic, two different solutions can be obtained. One consists in the conservation of the thesis, while the other in the actualization of the antithesis. Prestipino calls the first solution thesis-made-synthesis, the second antithesis-made-synthesis. The first is regressive because it aims at consolidating the old element, i.e. the thesis, while the second one is progressive because aims at actualizing the new element, i.e. the antithesis. 174 In following this logical scheme, one can consider De Sanctiss and Croces interpretations as enacting the first solution, while Gramscis reading, the second one. In other words, in overlooking the contrapuntal relationship between Farinata and Cavalcante, De Sanctis and Croce do not see the active role of Cavalcante and interpret him as a secondary figure unrelated to Farinata. They thus reject the active role of the antithesis (Cavalcante) and reassert the thesis (Farinata), as if the antithesis had no active function in changing the thesis. Gramsci overturns this reading and conceives Cavalcante the active figure able to change the dynamics of the canto, transforming Farinatas dominant figure into a didascalia175 and an explicator of the represented drama. In other words, what was passive and subordinated for De Sanctis and Croce now becomes active and leading for Gramsci. In addition, after Cavalcantes intervention and Dantes desire to know about
173

Later on, Kenneth Burke also developed a similar idea in The Philosophy of Literary Forms. Berkeley: U of California P, 1973. 107. 174 See Giuseppe Prestipino. Dialettica. In Fabio Frosini and Guido Liguori, eds. Le parole di Gramsci. Roma: Carocci, 2004. 55-73. 175 This point is to be expanded because Gramsci uses the notion of didascalia several times both in his reading of Inf. 10 and in those notes in which he explains his idea of dialectic.

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Cavalcantes torment, Farinatas proud political discourse turns into an explicative discourse on Cavalcantes drama. This means that, by transforming Farinatas discourse, the subaltern Cavalcante has now become the new nucleus of the scenic complex. This new center influences and leads to change the old thesis, and in doing so, becomes the new pivot in the canto structure. In fact, Gramsci seems to reflect on the two figures of Cavalcante and Farinata as if they were respectively the direct picture of the damned in the canto and the negative of this picture. For Gramsci, Cavalcantes drama is what Dante wanted to expressely represent as the actual drama (il dramma in atto) of the damned in this canto: Farinata, meanwhile, is a sort of facilitator and medium for the representation of Cavalcantes torments. Farinatas presence, stability, movements, and gestures have indeed their final target and focus in Cavalcante, for Farinata changes his figural aspect and structural function after Cavalcantes intervention. In other words, in the interactions among the cantos figures (Dante, Virgil, Cavalcante, and Farinata), all of them change after Cavalcantes intervention. As Gramsci points out, Dante describes Farinata with a series of negatives in order to echo the (three) movements of Cavalcante: the distortion of the face, the lowering of the head, th bending of the back. Nonetheless, there is some change in Farinata as well. When he resumes, he is no longer as haughty as at his first appearance. Dante does not question Farinata just to acquire information; he questions him because he has been struck by Cavalcantes disappearance. He wants the problem that prevented him from answering Cavalcante to be resolved; he feels guilty about Cavalcante.176 And then, Gramsci significantly emphasizes, the structural passage [] is not merely structure; it is also poetry, it is a necessary element of the drama that has taken
176

Q 4, 78. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 2. 248.

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place.177 This emphasis on the interdependence of poetry and structure as a necessary element of the dramatic action needs a particular scrutiny, since it could allow us to bridge Gramscis reading of Inferno 10 with his concept of historical materialism. Given that Gramsci organized the structure of Notebook 4 to mainly include two series of notes, on Inferno 10 and the other about the relationship between historical materialism and positivism, I suggest that between the two series there might be some sort of theoretical continuity. 178 Gramscis view of historical materialism aims at transcending the idealist and vulgar materialist separation between structure and superstructure. In Gramscis parlance, the moment of perfect balance and reciprocity between structure and superstructure is indicated with the concept of historical block. 179 Given that Gramscis reading of Inf. 10 aims at transcending Croces separation between structure and poetry, by means of analogy, we can argue, that Gramscis view of the Comedy is centered on the concept of drama, which also points to a logical-poetic block, i.e. a balance and reciprocity between structure and poetry. What this point suggests is that Gramsci resists reading canto 10 through a
177 178

Ibid. It is noteworthy that Gramsci organized Notebook 4 having a clear plan in mind. Indeed, he divided the notebook in two sections and planned to use at least part of the first half for a series of notes on canto 10 of Inferno and Dante criticism; the second for a set of Notes on Philosophy. Materialism and Positivism. First Series. 179 Gramsci derived his notion of historical block from Sorel. See Q 4, 15. It is to note that Sorels ideas on Marxism were strongly influenced by Antonio Labriolas Del Materialismo storico. As Sorel emphasized in his review of Labriolas book published in 1896 on Le devenir social, Labriola understood the importance that the innovation of historical materialism was to intend history as a unitary complex and that it pivots on the notion that structure and superstructure are interdependent. See Gian Biagio Furiozzi. Sorel e lItalia. Messina-Firenze: DAnna, 1975. 31. I tried to emphasized the centrality of the concept of interdependence among phenomena in response to Peter Ivess book, Gramscis Politics of Language, in which in criticizing interpretations of Gramsci and Marxism as a dualist philosophy, Ives, in my view, weakened the notion of distinction itself, without considering the fact that the central notion at play in Gramscis (and in Labriolas) historical materialism is the concept

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vertical distinction between contemplative and active lives, as De Sanctis did. He rather envisions a more horizontal relationship shaped by a counterpoint between the domineering (and dominant) figure Farinata and the subfering (and subaltern) figure Cavalcante.180 Gramsci shows himself to be aware of the humble character of Cavalcantes suffering and uncertainty, and that Dante counterpoints (contrappone) this characterization to Farinatas virility and pride. As he argues, Cavalcante appears, not upright and manly like Farinata, but humble, disheartened, perhaps on his knees, ans asks uncertainly about his son.181 And then he adds that Cavalcante experiences doubt, uncertainty. In addition, in Cavalcantes paternal love, generic human life is seen in a concrete condition, in the enjoyment of light, which the damned and the dead have lost.182 For Gramsci, without considering Cavalcantes drama, in quel girone non si
that, even if distinct, phenomena are interdependent. See also Stefano Selenu. Ives and Gramsci in Dialogue. Rethinking Marxism Rethinking Marxism 21.3 (2009): 344-54. 180 Cavalcantes subalternity and suffering is also expressed by the movements of the characters within the canto. While Farinatas movements are proud superbe as Benvenuto da Imola wrote in his commentary to the Comedy and up-directed, which express the stability and certainty of a typical virile figure (sergea col petto e con la fronte / comavesse l'inferno in gran dispitto, v. 35; ondei lev le ciglia un poco in suso, v. 45), Cavalcante perfectly represents the down-directed movements of the suffering and uncertain humble. The linguistic game between subaltern and suffering I am proposing becomes clearer taking into account the etymological relationship between the two terms. Both of them are compound words, whose first part is the particle sub. Indeed, subaltern is constituted by sub- and -altern, i.e. the other that lives at the bottom of a hierarchical order; suffering by sub- and ferre, which etymologically means to bring below. As Christopher Kleinhenz showed, there is a common feature between Farinatas erect posture and Dantes towering of giants. According to Kleinhenz, both Farinata and the Towers (whose model is surely Babel) are symbol of superbia. Superbia is the counter-vice of humility, a fundamental ethical virtue for Dante. From this perspective, Dantes idea of a humble Italy is crucial. I will develop these ideas in the fourth chapter, in which I analyze Dantes project as a counter-babelic ethical-political act. See Christopher Kleinhenz. Dantes Towering Giants: Inferno XXXI. In Romance Philology 27.3 (February 1974): 269-285. For Farinatas superbia see also Robert Durling. Farinata and the Body of Christ. Stanford Italian Review 2.1 (Spring 1981): 5-35. 181 Q 4, 78. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 2. 247. Italics mine. 182 Ibid. It is worthy to notice that the features Gramsci highlighted the humbleness, the doubtfulness, and the joy for light - are particular significant in light of the entire Comedy. As an instance, the joy for light contrasts with the obscurity in the scripture on the gates of the Hell and with the obscurity in the final canto of the Inferno in which Dante visions Lucifer. It is also important to notice that, Farinata and

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vede in atto il tormento del dannato. The damned soul is unable to see the present, to understand Dantes words correctly, and, thus, to speak by and for himself. Yet, as Gramsci sees it, he is able to transform Farinatas attitude and function in the canto. Cavalcante and Farinata are close to each other (some illustrators even depict them as being in the same tomb); their dramas are tighly intertwined, and Farinata is reduced to the structural role of explicator in order to make the reader enter deeply into the drama of Cavalcante.183 In other words, Cavalcante is the antithesis whose influence tempers Farinatas political pride and intellectual theorization with a more humble dimension. This changes Farinata, who cannot turn back to his original dimension, but becomes the explicator with the role of solving the knot tied in Dantes soul by the intervention and disappearance of Cavalcante.

8. Humanism, Heresy, and the National-Cultural: Guidos Disdain and Gramscis History of Intellectuals
As I have also mentioned earlier, the dialectical interplay between the visible and the veiled is a powerful hermeneutic device for reading the Comedy. In this respect, in the background of the thesis-Farinata and the antithesis-Cavalcante, Guido stands as a parenthesis. Guidos presence in the canto (and, arguably, in Dantes Comedy in general) is placed in a state of suspension. In this parenthesis lies the veiled motif for Cavalcantes actual drama, if we follow Gramscis contention that the aesthetic and dramatic accent of the canto falls upon the verb ebbe in the perfect tense. In other words, Gramscis reading
Lucifer share a similar body language: Farinata lev le ciglia un poco in suso (in Inf. 10.45) contra Dante similarly to Lucifer, who contra il suo fattor alz le ciglia (Inf. 34.35).

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of the canto leads us to consider Guidos presence as the structural force needed to depict Cavalcantes actual drama. In this final section of the chapter, I consider Gramscis interest in Inferno 10 in light of his understanding of the Italian Communes, to which I have devoted some attention in the first chapter. In order to show that the question of Cavalcantes position in the Divine Comedy is for Gramsci not an episodic and apparently out-of-context topic with respect to the other issues he deals with, I investigate the position of Guido Cavalcanti in the context of Inferno 10 and discuss Gramscis interpretation of verses 6163, which most Dante scholars have recognized as the most problematic verses of the canto. I conclude that, by juxtaposing Gramscis interpretation of Inf. 10 with his research on the Italian intellectual history, we obtain a useful perspective for decoding the relevance of Gramscis general interest in Dante and the age of the communes. At verses 61-63, in replying to Cavalcantes question why Guido was not traveling through the afterlife with him, the pilgrim-poet states that, Da me stesso non vegno: colui chattende l per qui mi mena forse cui Guido vostro ebbe a disdegno.184 The cui toward which Guido had disdain is a textual variable with an unspecified semantic value. It is a voided center or null-point that absorbs the differential relationship between Dante and Guido. The formal nature of the variable cui gave rise to an extraordinary exegetic production. Even Croces approach to the Comedy is related to an exegetic tradition concerning these verses of Inf. 10 a tradition that stems from Vincenzo Borghinis
183

Q 4, 83. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 2. 253.

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interpretation of the Comedy. Dante stimato da noi e tenuto in conto Borghini argues come Poeta e non come filosofo; ora aggiungo che cos volle egli, e cos intese. E mostrasi che domandandol messer Cavalcante perch Guido suo figlio non era seco, se per altezza dingegno facea quel cammino, Dante ne assegn la cagione subito, che Guido avea dispregiata la poesia e tenuta per una cosa vile, il che non avea fatto egli, e per quella gli era concesso quel cammino, e non al suo Guido gran filosofo, a quella scienza tutto inteso. Mostra dunque che faccia questo cammino come Poeta.185 Borghinis reading is one of the principal ideological sources for Croces La poesia di Dante.186 Along with Borghini, Croce considered Dante a poet and not a theologian or philosopher. Since Dante is a poet, according to Croce, we should devote our attention to his poetry and not the conceptual and allegorical structure of the Comedy. Gramsci refers to the problem of understanding Guidos disdain in Q4, 82, in which he recalls a review by Gargano about Sicardis La lingua italiana in Dante. Gramsci will also refer to Sicardis book in Q 5, 151, where he praises its emphasis on the study of language for interpreting the writers poetic world 187 an argument also developed in Q4, 82. To better understand this note, I suggest it be viewed as composed of two argumentative sections. In the first section, Gramsci comments on Sicardis arguments concerning the semantic value of cui and ebbe a disdegno. Gramsci follows Sicardi
184 185

Inf. 10.61-63. Emphasis mine. Vincenzo Borghini. Pensieri diversi. In Ottavio Gigli, ed. Studi sulla Divina Commedia di Galileo Galilei, Vincenzo Borghini ed altri. Firenze, 1855 (reprinted in 2000 with a presentation of Franco Brioschi). 320. Emphasis mine. 186 See Croce. The Poetry of Dante. Trans. Douglas Ainslie. Mamaroneck, NY: Appel, 1971. 5. The fact that Croce draws on Borghinis views about Dante seems to confirm Gramscis view of Croce as the last man of the Renaissance. See Q 10, 41. 1302-1303. See also Charles Singleton. Journey to Beatrice (Dante Studies 2). v-vi: no one seems to have noted that Croces rejection of the allegory and the allotria, as he called it, is but a late example of what is clearly a very old trend as old as the Renaissance, in fact, which means about as old as may be, in this case, since that followed so closely upon Dantes. 187 The review is Giuseppe S. Gargano. La lingua nei tempi di Dante e linterpretazione della poesia.

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in taking cui to refer to Virgil. From a grammatical viewpoint, cui is not a direct, but rather an indirect object. Thus, the verse should be paraphrased as [con] cui Guido vostro ebbe a disdegno,188 in which cui follows the implicit preposition con and refers to Virgil, i.e. the person through (con) whom Dantes journey can be realized. According to Sicardi, the three canticle of the Comedy as well as classic Latin works were rich with implicit elements like the preposition con in Inf. 10. These elements are unexpressed but present in the text. Thus, Gramsci asks, what is the object of ebbe a disdegno? According to Sicardi, the object of had in disdain is to be found in da me stesso non vegno and is, let us suppose, either the noun venuta[sic!] or, if one prefers, an object clause, di venire.189 In other words, for Sicardi, Guido disdained to come to the other world through Virgil. While the first section mainly deals with Sicardis arguments, in the second one, by critiquing Garganos review, Gramsci draws the main conclusion of his reading of the canto. In this section he contends that the aesthetic and dramatic accent of the canto falls on the verb ebbe, and not on cui or ebbe a disdegno. Given the definitive tone of this contention, should we consider this final argument a rejection of the arguments in the first section of the note? In other words, should we reject any effort to understand the value of cui and ebbe a disdegno as Sicardi tried to do? In my view, the argument that the aesthetic and dramatic accent of the canto falls on ebbe should not be taken as a normative direction to reject any attempt to interpret
Marzocco (14 aprile 1929). English Trans.: the one... [with] whom Guido disdained to come here. 189 Q 4, 82. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 2. 250.
188

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cui and the object of Guidos disdain. The trajectory Gramsci wanted to draw is directed to a better evaluation of the fact that Cavalcantes drama does not deal with his rationality, as Garganos interpretation implied, but with his passions. As Gramsci highlights Cavalcante is not simply disappointed that Guido is not coming with Dante, which implies that Cavalcante suffers after rationally reflecting on the reasons why Guido is not accompanying Dante. By contrast Gramsci insists Cavalcantes drama concerns the passions he immediately feels for the death of his son. As Gramsci says, in the case of Cavalcante, the sole dramatic factor is paternal love.190 Moreover, the fact that the general tone Gramsci adopted in commenting Sicardis interpretation is not polemical helps the final argument to appear as a general hermeneutic trajectory without a totalizing normative charge. In fact, Gramsci both cites and comments Sicardis insights, but never critiques them. In particular, he emphasizes that Sicardis interpretation is formal and not substantive and states that Sicardi does not pause to explain what is disdained (whether it is the Latin language, or Virgils imperialism, or the other things proposed by the interpreters). In this comment to Sicardi, Gramscis emphasis falls on the questione della lingua and Virgils imperialism. Although he did not develop further this train of thought, the fact that he suggested a potential interpretation of Guidos disdain is revealing of his reflections on Guido Cavalcanti. This provides us with a fruitful perspective to re-consider Gramscis notes on Inf. 10 within the constellation of topics outlined in his plans of study, in particular the one in Q1, 1. Indeed, the fact that Gramsci noted the Latin language and Virgilian imperialism
190

Q 4, 83. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 2. 253.

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as possible signifiers for a more substantial reading of Guidos disdain seems to be coherent with Gramscis reflections on the history of Italian intellectuals, humanism, and the communes. In this respect, Q 7, 68 is insightful. In discussing an essay by Luigi Arezio, Gramsci highlights that Giuseppe Toffanins book, Che cosa fu lUmanesimo (1929), seems to him to be very relevant for his research in prison. According to Gramsci, Toffanin asserts that humanism must not be confused with the progressive reawakening that came after the year 1000.191 Moreover, he adds that humanism is an essentially Italian phenomenon []. In a certain sense, it is the thirteenth-century civilization of the communes that may be called heretical; it appeared as an irruption of the most refined sentiments and thoughts in plebeian form []. The vernacular literature emanating from the civilization of the communes and independently of classicism was indicative of a society in which the leaven of heresy fermented a leaven that, among the masses, weakened respect for ecclesiastical authority, while, among the few, it became an open break with the Romanitas that was characteristic of the period between the Middle Ages (in the precise sense) and humanism. Some intellectuals appear to have been conscious of this historical discontinuity: they claimed to be cultured without reading Virgil, that is, without liberal studies, the general abandonment of which, according to Boccaccio, justified the use of the vernacular, rather than Latin, in the Divine Comedy. The greatest of these intellectuals was Guido Cavalcanti.192 In this light, Guido, the parenthetical and quasi-visible figure of Inferno 10 the canto about heretics , is thus the intellectual who in the most radical way had in disdain, Dantes journey, Virgil, and the Romanitas of liberal studies, as the passage above indicates. In other words, as Gramscis notes on the history of Italian intellectuals suggest, Guido held in disdain the cultural politics of early humanism in the Late Middle Ages.
191 192

Q 8, 68. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 3. 204. Ibid. 204-205. Emphasis mine.

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The passage above though unexploited by Gramsci scholars is poignant for understanding both Dante and Gramsci dialogically, because they highlight the role of humanism in Italian and European Late medieval culture. My argument is then that this note along with those on the Risorgimento and the communes, are precious elements of the complex historical-dramatic scenario Gramsci depicted in his prison writings. The notes on Dante and the Duecento are relevant parts of Gramscis multifaceted reflection on central notions such as the national-popular, cosmopolitanism, humanism, political and civil societies, and hegemony, as also a letter to Tania dated September 7, 1931 witnesses.193 What is at stake in Gramscis annotations on Dante and Guido is the relationship between democratic and heretical movements in the communes. In Dante, the love of the plebeian language, born out of the virtually heretical state of mind of the communes, was bound to clash with a quasi-humanistic concept of knowledge. Humanism, from Dante until just before Machiavelli, is a distinctly separate epoch, and, contrary to what some people think, the affinity between humanism and scholasticism is not superficial they have the same antidemocratic and antiheretical impulse. 194 Gramscis notes on the intellectual history in late Duecento suggest that Guido held in disdain all the reactionary visions of humanists on the classic Latin world, and, by contrast, he preferred to write in vernacular. If so, verses 61-63 of Inferno 10 acquire a peculiar historical meaning if read from the perspective of intellectual, cultural, and linguistic history. If Guido, while embracing Averroism, rejected humanistic, reactionary classicism, Dante neither rejected classical culture nor the spiritual mission of the Church in history. On the contrary, Dante re-affirmed and confronted both of them placing
193

This is the letter in which Gramsci expresses his idea of intellectual, and its relationships with the notion of the state, and the medieval Communes. See Letters from Prison. Ed. Rosengarten. Vol. 2. 66-67.

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himself as the producer of a new vision of poetry, politics, history, and love. 195 If we juxtapose Q 7, 68 with Q 5, 85, entitled Sviluppo dello spirito borghese in Italia,196 we obtain further insights on both the cultural politics of the Communes and Dante. The starting point of the latter note is Manlio Dazzis article Nel VI centenario della morte di Albertino Mussato, according to which, Mussato was the forerunner of modern (i.e. humanist, according to Dazzi) historiography. As Gramsci observes, Mussato, according to Dazzi, broke with the theological tradition of history, and more than any other individual of his time he was responsible for the introduction of modern or humanistic history. [] In Mussato, the passions and utilitarian motifs of men appear as motifs of history. The fierce struggles among the factions in the communes and among the early country squires contributed to this transformation of the conception of the world. 197 And then he adds that the development of Mussatos conception can be traced all the way back to Machiavelli, Guicciardini, and L. B. Alberti. 198 These annotations are not only curiosities of an erudite scholar. Indeed, in Q 5, 31, entitled Sulla tradizione nazionale italiana which in Togliatti and Platones edition of the Notebooks precedes Q 5, 85 by tackling the problem of the funzione storica dei Comuni e della prima borghesia italiana Gramsci emphasized that this is a very interesting problem from the point of view of historical materialism, and I think it can be connected to the question of the international function of Italian intellectuals199 From this perspective, Dantes linguistic project becomes a relevant historical
194 195

Q7, 68. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 3. 205. As it is known, in Inferno 4, Dante assigns to himself the sixth position among the classical poets Homer, Statius, Lucretius, Horatio, and Virgil. In doing so, Dante not only praises the classic models of poetry, but aims at positioning himself in a precise historical trajectory from ancient to modern times. 196 Topic that intersects his views on the theory of historiography, for it interconnects Gramscis own views of historical materialism with those of de Grythusen, as I have already mentioned in the previous chapter. 197 Q 5, 85. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 2. 337-8. 198 Ibid.

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referent for Gramscis political project as Q 29, 7 also suggests. It is in this note that Gramsci defines the De vulgari eloquentia as a national-cultural political act, in which the historical fact is elevated into theory. 200 Then, in returning to Gramscis note on Mussato, we find that the dialectic between cosmopolitanism and particularism was already germinal in Mussatos protohumanism. According to Gramsci, in the development of early humanistic history following Mussato, one can distinguish two main currents. The first one begins with Mussato, reaches its high point in Alberti, and directs its attention toward the particular, toward the bourgeois as an individual who develops within civil society and who has no conception of political society outside his particular sphere. 201 This current is tied to Guelfism, which, for Gramsci, can be said to be a medieval theoretical syndicalism. It is federalist without having a federal center. It entrusts intellectual questions to the church, which is the de facto federal center by virtue of its intellectual as well as political hegemony.202 To have a better understanding of the role and position of the Roman Catholic Church and, therefore, the development of this current, according to Gramsci, one must study the way in which the communes were really constituted: in other words, the concrete attitude adopted by the representatives toward the government of the
199 200

Q 5, 31. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 2. 295. Emphasis mine. In order to understand how the national consciousness in the Risorgimento generated it is fundamental to take into account the notion that the modern elaboration of the national consciousness is not only a product of modernity, but it is an elaboration of the historical elements and traces Italians inherited from the Middles Ages. And we find a confirmation of this last point in the introductory note of Notebook 19 (1934-1935), which deals with the Study of the Risorgimento. 201 Q 5, 85. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 2. 338. 202 Ibid. See also the letter to Tania, September 7, 1931.

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commune.203 The other current is Ghibelline in the broad sense and reached its high point in Machiavelli, who viewed the Roman Catholic Church as a negative national problem. As Gramsci contends in the final part of the note, Dante belonged to this current, he opposed the anarchy of the communes and of feudalism, but he looked for a semimedieval solution. In any case, he posed the question of the church as an international problem, and he pointed out the need to limit its power and its activity. [...] Dante is really a transition: there is the assertion of secularism but still couched in medieval language.204 Dantes assertion of secularism, as well as Machiavellis, seems then to be paramount for that tradition of secular humanism which, in dealing with Antonio Labriolas central role for Marxism, Gramsci viewed as the ethical ground of the modern State.205 Gramscis notes suggest that the love for the vernacular and for Latin respectively, relates to the contests between a secular-heretical state of mind, such as Guidos, and the clerical proto-humanism, such as Mussatos and Del Virgilios. 206 Keeping this framework in mind and juxtaposing it with Gramscis contention that Dantes De vulgari eloquentia is a national-cultural political act, we should ask: What is Dantes position with regard to the opposition between Latin and the vernacular? Why did Dante choose to write in the vernacular?
203

Power used to last for a very short time (often, just two months), and in those days government members were made to live in seclusion, without women. They were very uncouth people who were stimulated by the immediate interests of their craft. Q 5, 85. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 2. 338. 204 Ibid. 205 Q 11, 70. 1509. 206 Here I use the term clerical in the sense Gramsci employs it in Q 7, 68. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 3. 206. Humanism was the first clerical phenomenon in the modern sense; it was a Counter-Reformation in advance (besides, it was a Counter-Reformation vis--vis the commune period). The humanists opposed the breakdown of medieval and feudal universalism that the commune implied and that was smothered in its infancy, etc.

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CHAPTER 3 LOCUTIONI VULGARIUM GENTIUM PRODESSE TEMPTABIMUS: ON THE ETHICAL AND POLITICAL SENSE OF DANTES NOTION OF VULGARES GENTES
In Dante, the love of the plebeian language, born out of the virtually heretical state of mind of the communes, was bound to clash with a quasi-humanistic concept of knowledge. Antonio Gramsci. Heresy (haeresis) is so called in Greek from choice, doubtless because each person chooses for himself that which seems best to him Hence, therefore, heresy takes its meaning from choice, by which each person, according to his own judgment, chooses for himself whatever he pleases to institute and adopt. Isidore of Seville. Etymologies VIII.iii.2207

Opera naturale chuom favella; ma cos o cos, natura lascia poi fare a voi secondo che vabbella. These verses from Adams discourse with the pilgrim Dante in Par. 26.130-2, convey a general theory of language entailing a complex view of linguistic choice. For a bilingual and linguistically well-informed intellectual as Dante, the choice of writing in one language rather than the other and of mixing rather than dividing diverse linguistic codes is not only rich with aesthetic and stylistic implications but also with ethical and political ones. The linguistic choice of a poet like Dante is historically even more relevant when the chosen language is through an inherited tradition culturally and politically subordinated to the other. Indeed, although in Dantes age different literary manifestations
207

Haeresis Graece ab electione vocatur, quod scilicet unusquisque id sibi eligat quod melius illi esse videtur... Inde ergo haeresis dicta Graeca voce, ex interpretation electionis, qua quisque arbitrio suo ad instituenda, sive ad suspicienda quaelibet ipse sibi elegit. English Trans. Stephen A. Barney, Jennifer A. Beach, Oliver Berghof, ed. Etymologies of Isidore of Seville. West Nyack, NY: Cambridge UP, 2002.

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in the vernacular showed the possibility for the vernaculars to become the languages of a prestigious cultural development, at the end of the Duecento, Latin still held the highest cultural and institutional prestige. Its institutional power, its status as language of the artes liberales, and the general recognition of cultural forms inherited from the past contributed to maintain the prestige of Latin. As I have shown in the previous chapter, according to Gramsci, The vernacular literature emanating from the civilization of the communes and independently of classicism was indicative of a society in which the leaven of heresy fermented a leaven that, among the masses, weakened respect for ecclesiastical authority, while, among the few, it became an open break with the Romanitas that was characteristic of the period between the Middle Ages (in the precise sense) and humanism. Some intellectuals appear to have been conscious of this historical discontinuity: they claimed to be cultured without reading Virgil, that is, without liberal studies, the general abandonment of which, according to Boccaccio, justified the use of the vernacular, rather than Latin, in the Divine Comedy. The greatest of these intellectuals was Guido Cavalcanti. In Dante, the love of the plebeian language, born out of the virtually heretical state of mind of the communes, was bound to clash with a quasi-humanistic concept of knowledge.208 This passage not only helps us to draw a general image of the cultural demeanors within the age of the communes from which, according to Gramsci, Dantes love for the vernacular fermented, but also provides us with a useful clue to focus on Dantes linguistic problem and the ethical-political implications embedded in his views on the vernacular. As this passage witnesses, Boccaccio is the authoritative source Gramsci used to deal with Dantes decision to write his masterpiece in the vernacular rather than Latin. 209 In this respect, it is worthy to recall that Boccaccios views on Dantes choice to write in
174. Q 7, 68. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 3. 205. Emphasis mine. 209 In the note cited above, Gramsci quotes and discusses Luigi Arezios review of Giuseppe Toffanins
208

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the vernacular depend on the poetic exchange between Dante and Italian proto-humanist Giovanni del Virgilio known as the Eclogues.210 Moreover, as I suspect, Gramscis definition of Dantes Comedy as il canto del cigno medioevale, che pure anticipa i nuovi tempi e la nuova storia, 211 arguably, has some connection with del Virgilios expression arguto olori212 (clear-toned swan, It. cigno canoro) used to refer to Dante in his carmen. Therefore, given this sub-textual constellation and also considering the emphasis given by Gramsci to the fact that Dantes love for the vernacular was bound to clash with a quasi-humanistic concept of knowledge, a preliminary reflection on the Eclogues seems to be quite relevant for our dialogic reading of Dante and Gramsci and for decoding the ethical, political, and historical significance of Dantes linguistic project. In 1319, when Dante was still working on the third canticle of the Comedy, Giovanni del Virgilio wrote the carmen known as the first of the Eclogues, at the beginning of which lies the following question:
book Che cosa fu lUmanesimo. Firenze: Sansoni, 1929. As I have also remarked in the first two chapters, Gramsci found Toffanins book very interesting for his own studies in prison. 210 See Todd Boli Boccaccio. In Richard Lansing, ed. Dante Encyclopedia. New York-London: Garland, 2000. 110. The Eclogues had particular interest for Boccaccio in that they bear upon the question of Dantes use of the vernacular. In the Eclogues, Dante declines an invitation from the learned Bolognese professor of letters, Giovanni del Virgilio, to earn a poetic coronation by setting aside his work on the nearly completed Commedia and writing a poem in Latin instead. The Eclogues are an epistolary exchange about the role of poetry and the vernacular and consist of four compositions, one carme by del Virgilio and three Eclogues in the stylistic form of Virgilian eclogue. The first eclogue is Dantes and replies to Del Virgilios carmen, the second is written by del Virgilio and the last one is Dantes closing answer. On Giovanni del Virgilio and Dante see also Philip H. Wicksteed and Edmund G. Gardner. Dante and Giovanni del Virgilio: Including a Critical Edition of the Text of Dantes Eclogae Latinae and of the Poetic Remains of Giovanni del Virgilio. Reprint. Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries P, 1971; Giuseppe Vecchi. Giovanni del Virgilio e Dante. La polemica tra latino e volgare nella corrispondenza poetica e Eugenio Chiarini. I decem vascula della prima ecloga dantesca. In Dante e Bologna nei tempi di Dante. Bologna: Commissione per i testi di lingua, 1967. 61-76 and 77-88. See also Enrico Malato. Dante. Roma: Salerno Editrice, 1999. 216-223. 211 See Q 6, 64. Ed. Buttigieg. Vol. 3. 48: Isnt the Divine Comedy, to some extent, the swan song of the Middle Ages but also a harbinger of the new age and the new history? Emphasis mine. 212 Ec. I.50.

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Pieridum vox alma, novis qui cantibus orbem mulces letifluum, vitali tollere ramo dum cupis evolvens triplicis confinia sortis indita pro meritis animarum, sontibus Orcum, astripetis Lethen, epiphoebia regna beatis; tanta quid heu semper jactabis seria vulgo, et nos pallentes nihil ex te vate legemus? 213 This question drives the entire exchange between the two poets and encompasses at least two issues. The first one concerns the reasons why Dante decided to write his Comedy in the vernacular, while the second one deals with a sociolinguistic divide within late medieval society, expressed here as a radical split between the vulgus and the pallentes (the pale intellectuals). According to del Virgilio, in writing in the vernacular Dante was directing his poems only to a part of his potential audience, excluding in this way those who were dedicated to study (nos pallentes nihil ex te vate legemus). It is implicit in del Virgilios conservative view of literature that only those who write and read in Latin can be considered as part of the pallentes. From del Virgilios carmen it can be inferred that the language divide between Latin and the vernaculars in medieval culture is rich with sociocultural implications. Accordingly, the division between Latin and the vernacular implied in del Virgilios text indicates not only a distinction in terms of poetic style, but a rigid sociolinguistic separation of Dantes audience into vulgus and pallentes. The ways Del Virgilio terms the vulgus and vulgare in the remnant of his carminis is symptomatic of his conservative view of language. Indeed, in dealing with the
213

Ec. I.1-7. English trans.: Sacred voice of the Pierides who with unwonted songs doest sweeten the stagnant world, as with life-giving branch thou longest to upraise it, unfolding the regions of threefold fate assigned according to deserts of souls, Orcus to the guilty, Lethe to them that seek the stars, the realms above the sun to the blest; such weighty themes why wilt thou still cast to the vulgar, while we pale students shall read nought from thee as bard? Trans. Philip H. Wicksteed and Edmund G. Gardner. Dante and Giovanni del Virgilio. Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries P, 1902 (1971 reprint). 147.

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vulgus he uses expressions such as gens ydiota214 and apris215 (swine). Moreover, terms as laico,216 sermone forensi,217 and indigna veste218 are used to express the notion of vulgare, and del Virgilio associates the linguistic opposition between vernacular and Latin to the genre distinction between carmen laicum219 and carmen vatisonum.220 For del Virgilio, who considered himself as a clericus Aonidum, vocalis verna Maronis221 (cleric of the Muses and, in his name, Virgils servant), by writing in the vernacular, Dante could only produce lay poems but not carmina vatisona. In addition, Del Virgilio insists that by writing in Latin Dante would have had a broader audience than the vulgus. Given this, and since clerus vulgaria tempnit cum sint idiomata mille,222 del Virgilio insists that with his invitation to Dante to come to Bologna and receive the poetic laurel, Dante could have been hosted in the schools where the smell of laurel spreads from the crowns of winning poets and the poetic glory recalls the triumphant glory of the ducis populo223 if only he had written in Latin. However, by refusing to write in Latin, Dante constrained del Virgilio to award the laurel
214 215

Ec. I.10. Ec. I.21. Del Virgilios expression margaritas profliga prodigus apris re-writes Matthew 7:6 Neque mittatis margaritas vestras ante porcos. Alberto Colunga and Laurentio Turrado, ed. Biblia Sacra iuxta Vulgatam Clementinam: Nova Editio. Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1946. 1278. 216 Ec. I.15. 217 Ec. I.18. 218 Ec. I.22. 219 Ec. I.15. 220 Ec. I.24. 221 Ec. I.36. 222 Ec. I.15-6. Emphasis mine. English Trans.: Clergy scorns the vernaculars whereas there are a thousands idioms. As Mengaldo emphasized, the expression cum sint idiomata mille derives from Dantes De vulgari eloquentia (see I.x.9). See Mengaldo. De vulgari eloquentia. In Umberto Bosco. Enciclopedia Dantesca. Vol. 2. Roma: Treccani, 1970. 405. 223 Ec. I.37-40. gymnasiis the delectabor ovantum, inclita Peneis redolentem tempora sertis; ut praefectus equo sibi plaudit preco sonorus festa trophea ducis populo praetendere lato. It. Trans.: ginnasi con le illustre tempie profumate dai serti dalloro dei trionfatori; cos come laraldo dalla forte voce, cavalcando avanti, si compiace di mostrare al popolo lieto i solenni trofei del duce.

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to the Paduan poet Alberto Mussato224 the most representative poet of proto-humanism in Italy, as discussed in the previous chapter.225 Finally, by highlighting the conflicts around Dante,226 he adds that, using Latin, Dante by offering songs to everybody would bring peace among rivals, while using the vernacular destines his songs to remain unheard. 227 Why then did Dante choose to write his masterpiece in vernacular? In this chapter, I will discuss the ethical-political implications of Dantes discourse on vernacular eloquence and emphasize the effects that these implications have for our understanding of Dantes search for an illustrious vernacular language. To prepare my discussion, I will investigate the ethical and political sense embedded in the expression locutio vulgarium gentium, introduced by Dante in the very first paragraph of the Dve: volentes discretionem aliquater lucidare illorum qui tanquam ceci ambulant per plateas, plerunque anterior posteriora putantes, Verbo aspirante de celis locutioni vulgarium gentium prodesse temptabimus [...].228 As Dante himself states in the incipit of his treatise, no one had ever written anything similar before.229 Dante was not only aware that the topic he was proposing was unprecedented, but was also very cautious in his statements, as it is clear from several
224 225

Sitim Phrygio Musone levabo. Ec. III.88. Giovanni del Virgilio met Albertino Mussato in 1319 in Bologna and wrote for him the Ecloga ad Mussatum included in the Zibaldone Laurenziano. 226 Iam michi bellisonis horrent clangoris aures. Ec. I.41. 227 Omnibus ut solus dicas, indicta manebunt Ec. I.46. 228 Dve I.i.1. Emphasis mine. English Trans.: I shall try, inspired by the Word that comes from above, to say something useful about the language of people of speak the vulgar tongue, hoping thereby to enlighten somewhat the understanding of those who walk the streets like the blind, ever thinking that what lies ahead is behind them. 229 Cum neminem ante nos de vulgaris eloquentie doctrina quicquam inveniamus tractasse. Dve I.i.1. For a discussion on Dantes declaration of originality in light of the authorship-authority problematic, see Albert R. Ascoli. Dante and the Making of a Modern Author. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2008.

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passages within the De vulgari eloquentia.230 The co-presence in the treatise of certainty in claiming his authorial originality and his cautiousness in delivering his own ideas witnesses Dantes desire to deliver a new authoritative form of knowledge as well as awareness that his readers could have received his work critically or even rejected it. Indeed, as Robert Durling emphasized, Dantes warfare metaphors in the De vulgari eloquentia may imply hostile relationships between Dante and his audience(s). 231 Dantes discourse on the vernacular eloquence, Maria Corti has argued, draws on key notions on philosophical discourses about grammar by the modistae (also known as speculative grammarians), in particular from Boethius of Dacias De modi significandi.232 In the context of these speculative discourses on grammar, the modistae engaged diverse theoretical distinctions such as the one between inventores gramatice and gramatice positores (respectively, philosophers of grammar and grammarians), 233 and the one concerning the three epistemic modes of the modi essendi, modi intelligendi, and modi significandi. While philosophers of grammar (inventores gramatice) were focused on studying the modi intelligendi, grammarians (gramatice positores) devoted their attention to the modi significandi. In considering Cortis discourse, one can infer that, through the De vulgari eloquentia, one of Dantes aims is to find some sort of grammar for the vernacular language that, according to the definition provided in the treatise, was not a regulated grammatical language.234 Yet, as Corti insisted, Dantes goal was to find a form of poetic
230 231

See Dve I.ix.1 and Dve I.x.1. Robert Durling. The Audience(s) of the De vulgari eloquentia and the Petrose. In Dante Studies 110 (1992): 25-35. 232 Maria Corti. Dante a un nuovo crocevia. Firenze: Sansoni, 1982. 233 Dante uses these two expressions in Dve I.ix.11 and Dve I.x.2. 234 Though from a different angle Karl Vossler had a similar view to the one expressed by Maria Corti about

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language able to re-enact the original universality and naturalness of Adams language lost after the punishment of Babel. Cortis attempt to relate Dantes discourse on the vernacular eloquence to the speculative grammar has been widely critiqued as philologically problematic. 235 Nonetheless, it gave rise to a hermeneutic trend that interprets Dantes hunt for the illustrious vernacular as a search for a perfect language a trend that finds its major expression in Umberto Ecos book La ricerca della lingua perfetta nella cultura europea. In his chapter-length essay La lingua perfetta in Dante, Eco attempts to re-conceive Dantes notion of illustrious vernacular under the concept of perfect language described as a sort of universal grammatical matrix, or even a sort of innate forma locutionis.236
Dantes grammatization of the vernacular, when he claimed: Forse lunico scopo del de Vulgari eloquio, di far s che il volgare italiano si trasformi in una specie di grammatica e che dai mutevoli parlari si svolga un tipo unico di italiano scritto. See Karl Vossler. La Divina Commedia studiata nella sua genesi e interpretata. Trans. S. Iacini. Vol. I.1. Bari: Laterza: 1909-1913. 244. For a critique of Vossler, see also Bruno Nardi. Dante e la cultura medievale. Roma-Bari: Laterza, 1985. 189. According to Nardi, il volgare illustre [] il sustrato comune che affratella fra loro tutti i dialetti dItalia, ed esiste gi in atto, commisto con essi. Dante vuol solo liberarlo dalla scoria municipale dei volgari propri delle diverse regioni italiane. And then he adds Questo volgare illustre non attende che lo si formi; esso esiste di gi come lingua viva ed espressione naturale della rinovellata anima della gente itlica, come segno, anzi, dello stesso rinovellarsi della coscienza della stirpe latina. Il volgare illustre esiste di gi, e attende che lo si scopra e lo si adopri da tutti, per esprimere i sentimenti pi alti e pi nobili che sbocciano nellanima italiana. Nel De vulgari eloquentia, il concetto del variare delle lingue non pi concetto astratto, come presso i trattatisti scolastici, ma diventa concreto, solido, storico: coscienza dello storico divenire del linguaggio di un popolo. In ci sta appunto la novit del trattato dantesco. 235 See Alfonso Maier. Dante al crocevia? Studi medievali 25.2 (1983): 735-48; Ileana Pagani. Teoria linguistica di Dante, Napoli: Liguori, 1982, in particular the last chapter; and Franco Lo Piparo. Dante linguista anti-modista. In Federico Albano Leoni, et al., eds. Italia linguistica: idee, storia, strutture. Bologna: Il Mulino, 1983. 9-30. For a further reflection on the issue, see also Giuseppe Mazzotta, Dantes Vision and the Circle of Knowledge. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1993 and Marianne Shapiro. De vulgari eloquentia: Dantes Book of Exile. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1990. 236 According to Umberto Eco, la tesi di Maria Corti stata veementemente contestata (cfr. in particolare Pagani 1982 e Maier 1983), obiettando che non ci sono prove evidenti che Dante conoscesse il testo di Boezio di Dacia, che in vari casi Maria Corti stabilisce tra i due testi analogie non sostenibili e che le idee linguistiche che si possono ritrovare in Dante circolavano in altri filosofi e grammatici anche prima del XIII secolo. Ora, anche se si concedono i due primi punti, rimane il terzo, che cio lidea di una grammatica universale circolasse ampiamente nella cultura medievale e che, come nessuno dei critici di Corti mette in dubbio, Dante fosse a conoscenza di queste discussioni. Dire, come fa Maier, che non era necessario conoscere il testo di Boezio per sapere che la grammatica una e medesima per sostanza in tutte le lingue, anche se varia in superficie, perch questa affermazione ricorre anche in Ruggero Bacone, se mai prova convincente che Dante poteva pensare a una grammatica universale. Pertanto

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Although fascinating, this interpretation needs careful scrutiny, for it appears to lack direct textual evidence. Indeed, Dante never explicitly refers to the illustrious vernacular as a perfect language and never points out that what he was hunting for was a universal forma locutionis or innate set of grammatical principles. Without entering in a detailed analysis of this interpretation, it is worthy to notice that scholars of Dantes treatise have rarely discussed the important text of of Dve I.ix.11 in its entirety.237 It is in this passage that Dante uses the expression inventores gramatice and it is in this passage that he makes clear that what ancient Romans called gramatica238 was a historical invention created through the common consent of many people(s). Hic moti sunt inventores gramatice facultatis: que quidem gramatica nichil aliud est quam quedam inalterabilis locutionis ydemptitas diversibus temporibus atque locis. Hec cum de comuni consensu multarum gentium fuerit regulata, nulli singulari arbitrio videtur obnoxia, et per consequens nec variabilis esse potest. Adivenerunt ergo, illam ne, propter variationem sermonis arbitrio singularium fluitantis, vel nullo modo vel saltim imperfecte antiquorum actingeremus
poteva pensare alla forma locutionis data da Dio come a una sorta di meccanismo innato che a noi contemporanei ricorda esattamente quei principi universali di cui si occupa la grammatica generativa chomskiana (la quale daltra parte si ispira agli ideali razionalistici di Descartes e dei grammatici secenteschi di Port-Royal, i quali rappresentano). Umberto Eco. La ricerca della lingua perfetta. Roma-Bari: Laterza, 1999. 51-52. Emphasis mine. 237 Lo Piparo Dante linguista anti-modista is an exception in this sense. In his essay, Lo Piparo uses this passage to clarify a profound difference between Dante and Boethius of Dace. See Dante linguista anti-modista, in particular p. 19: Le differenze rispetto alla linguistica boeziana sono notevoli. La grammatica in Boezio contemporaneamente una realt naturale (esiste ab aeterno nella mente umana) e una raffigurazione filosofica. In Dante ad essere naturali e universali sono gli idiomi-volgari; le grammatiche sono idiomi ausiliari artificialmente costruiti che si aggiungono ai primi. Gli inventores gramatice facultatis danteschi svolgono pertanto un ruolo del tutto diverso dalla filosofica inventio grammaticae di Boezio, Il filosofo boeziano invenit grammaticam nel senso che porta alla luce per cos dire teorica una realt che comunque esiste: dal momento che inventor grammaticae a proprietate rei regulatur, la grammatica ideo non est pure a voluntate nostra [Mod. sign., Qu. 9]. I danteschi inventores gramatice facultatis non scoprono una grammatica naturale ma producono un idiomagrammatica artificiale. La loro grammatica non a proprietate rei regulatur (Boezio) ma de comuni consensu multarum gentium fuerit regulata [DVE I, IX, 11]. Non essendo fondata sullorganizzazione razionale del mondo (proprietate rei) ma sul consenso delle genti, pu anche differenziarsi nei diversi popoli: non sono infatti solo i Romani a possedere una grammatica-idioma ma hanc quidem secundariam Greci habent et alii, sed non omnes [I, I, 3]. It is curious that Umberto Eco never mentions Lo Piparos essay. 238 Dve I.i.3.

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autoritates et gesta, sive illorum quos a nobis locorum diversitas facit esse diversos.239 To our purpose it is useful to recall three of Dantes arguments concerning his idea of grammar. First, grammar is a secondary language in respect to the first one, i.e., the vernacular (Est et inde alia locutio secundaria nobis, Dve I, i, 3). Second, this form of language differs from the vernaculars not because of its perfection but because of its artificial nature (Dve I.i.4) and its stability in time and space (Dve I.ix.11). Third, for Dante, the spatial-temporal stability of grammar does not imply any positive value, except that it allows the study of ancient authors. As Dve I.ix.11 makes clear, the stability of grammar rather derives from a consensual decision of many people to have a common regulated language, needed for the very pragmatic reason of studying the ancient texts.240 In other words, Dante never refers to his idea of illustrious vernacular or to the gramatica as a sort of innate linguistic matrix (which, as Eco suggests in his argument, can be paralleled to Chomskis Cartesian linguistics). Rather the formation and acquisition of both the vernaculars (the inferior ones and the ideal illustrious one) and the gramatica are related to human practices and needs, the first to the nursing of children and the labor of poets, the second to the need for understanding the authors of the past. In both cases it is evident that, for Dante, language is always a socio-historical product. According to Dve I.i.3, not only Romans but also Greeks and other peoples
239

Dve I.ix.11. Emphasis mine. English Trans.: This was the point from which the inventors of the art of grammar began: for their gramatica is nothing less than a certain immutable identity of language in different times and places. Its rules having been formulated with the common consent of many peoples, it can be subject to no individual will; and, as a result, it cannot change. So those whose devised this language did so lest, through changes in language dependent on the arbitrary judgment of individuals, we should become either unable, or, at best, only partially able, to enter into contact with the deeds and authoritative writings of the ancients, or of those whose difference of location makes them different from us. 240 Dve I.ix.11.

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possessed this secondary language, although not all of them had the rules and knowledge to understand it, because, in order to learn these, one must spend much time and dedicated study (spatium temporis et studii assiduitatem).241 On the contrary, the vulgare is, for Dante, the speech (locutione) that we acquire imitating (imitantes accipimus) the nurse (nutrix), without the direction of any rules (sine omni regula). For this reason, vernacular eloquence is necessary to everyone. Dantes belief that eloquence is necessary for everybody allows us to expand the question of authorship 242 towards concerns regarding the ethical-political implications entailed in Dantes argument. From this perspective, we should consider at least three arguments condensed in Dantes incipit. First, Dante contends that he is the first author of a doctrine of vernacular eloquence (cum neminem ante nos de vulgaris eloquentie doctrina quicquam inveniamus tractasse); second, vernacular eloquence is necessary to everybody (talem scilicet eloquentiam penitus omnibus necessariam videamus); third, the term everybody (omnibus) includes men, women, and children (cum ad eam non tantum viri sed etiam mulieres et parvuli nituntur, in quantum natura permictit). As Mengaldo highlighted, in Dantes incipit we find the presence of a democratic opening (apertura democratica).243 According to Dante, only humans need language, because only human beings need this medium in order to communicate. Moreover, every human being needs to speak and talk to other humans. Therefore, in Dantes view, every human being needs a form of eloquence. In this respect, Pasolinis contention that lallargamento linguistico di Dante, dovuto allo spostamento del suo
241 242

Dve I.i.2-3. See Albert Ascoli. Dante and the Making of a Modern Author. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2008. 243 See Dante Alighieri. De vulgari eloquentia. Ed. Pier Vincenzo Mengaldo. 26 note 1.

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punto di vista in alto luniversalismo teologico medioevale non solo un allargamento dellorizzonte lessicale e espressivo: ma, insieme, anche sociale244 seems particularly appropriate. However, this does not mean that Dante saw in any potential reader his ideal audience. On the contrary, as Durling contended, from Dantes texts it is evident that Dante is torn between his scornful elitism, which is both reasoned and a matter of temperament, and his desire to reach a larger public. 245 In the first paragraph of the treatise, the contrapuntal play between the negative universal neminem used in the beginning sentence cum neminem ante nos and the affirmative universal omnibus in the subsequent sentence is, in my view, poignant. It underscores the historical and ethical-political significance of Dantes project. The fact that he sees himself as the first intellectual who decided to write a vulgaris eloquentie doctrina becomes even more significant in light of the fact that this doctrina is necessary to everybody. This necessity renders the treatise itself necessary and intensifies the readers perception of Dantes desire to help (prodesse) what he called the locutio vulgarium gentium (Dve I.i.1). It is curious and revealing that thus far the expression locutio vulgarium gentium has been not much researched and discussed. It is the aim of the remainder of this chapter to examine this expression, and, in doing so, to show that it entails a complex semantic cluster intersecting both social and ethnic domains. By looking at modern editions of the De vulgari eloquentia, it is symptomatic that in translating the notion of
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Pier Paolo Pasolini. La volont di Dante a essere poeta. In Empirismo eretico. Milano: Garzanti, 2000. 104. Although I find Pasolinis statement on Dantes pluristylism as an index to an enlargement of the social basis, the preceding idea that Dante decided to use per la Commedia la lingua della borghesia comunale fiorentina seems to me not compelling, even misleading. See also the final chapter of this dissertation. 245 Robert Durling. The Audience(s) of the De vulgari eloquentia and the Petrose. In Dante Studies 110

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locutio vulgarium gentium, translators have not reached a common term. Indeed, locutio vulgarium gentium has been multifariously translated as la lingua della gente volgare (Marigo), lingua della gente illetterata (Mengaldo), la lingua della gente comune (Marazzini e Del Popolo), the speech of the common people (Shapiro), il parlare della gente che si esprime in volgare (Cecchin) the language of people who speak the vulgar tongue (Botterill). It is noteworthy that this expression has been translated in such different ways, but no translator provided an articulated explanation to his/her choice. In addition, while Dante scholars have devoted their attention to the first term locutio in the expression, 246 no discussion has been fostered on the second part of it. By keeping in mind that Dantes treatise on the doctrine of vernacular eloquence has a twofold goal (i.e. to illuminate the discernment of erring people and to help the locutio vulgarium gentium), I suggest that we attain a better understanding of Dantes linguistic project after discussing the meaning(s) of the expression vulgarium gentium. The adjective vulgar is rooted in the Latin term vulgus. Taking into consideration that, in his first Eclogue, Giovanni del Virgilio used precisely the term vulgus,247 a preliminary examination of this term is particularly helpful for a fuller
(1992): 29. An analytic discussion of the term locutio in the Dve is offered by Mirko Tavoni. Contributo allinterpretazione di De vulgari eloquentia I 1-9. In Rivista di letteratura italiana 5.3 (1987): 385453. See also Umberto Eco. La ricerca della lingua perfetta. 45-47. 247 Mengaldo emphasized the significance of Giovanni del Virgilios knowledge of De vulgari eloquentia. For Mengaldo, the only evidence we have that Dantes treatise circulated before his death is il Carmen di del Virgilio, che potrebbe rieccheggiarla qua e l (cfr. luso di astripetus, prezioso composto non attestato anteriormente a VE II iv 11, al v. 5, nonch il v. 50 che potrebbe pure aver un rapporto con lo stesso luogo dantesco; e specialmente i vv. 15-16 clerus vulgaria tempnit, / et si non varient, / cum sint ydiomata mille, da raffrontare con laffermazione dellesistenza di mille e forse pi volgari italiani in VE I x 9, e forse anche con la dottrina svolta nel trattato dellintrinseca mutevolezza dei volgari di fronte alla stabilit del latino): spie notevoli... See Mengaldo. De vulgari eloquentia. In U. Bosco, ed. Enciclopedia Dantesca. Vol. 2. Roma: Treccani, 1970. 405. In my view, another clue is the expression
246

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understanding of Dantes concept of vulgares gentes. I also claim that the link between the notion of vulgus and the term vulgares gentes finally forces us to look at the term locutio vulgarium gentium not only from a literary-centered perspective but also from an ethical-political one. The Latin notion vulgus betrays a complex view of citizenship. Isidore of Seville provides us with a useful definition of vulgus, when, defining various notions of citizenship, he contrasts the concept of vulgus with that of populus. 248 The populace (populus) is a human multitude, allied through their agreed practice of law and by willing association and is distinct from the plebeians (plebs), because a populace consists of all the citizens.249 While the populace is the whole city250 gathered and bound by the law and willing association in a compact body like a stone, 251 the vulgus is a dispersed multitude, i.e. the plebeians, a plurality of scattered people, as the etymology of plebs, according to Isidore, suggests. In other words, the vulgus is the multitude living here and there as if it were each one where he wishes (vult, from velle, wish).252
vulgus used in first paragraph of his Carmen, which seems to reformulate Dantes expression vulgares gentes used in the first paragraph of De vulgari eloquentia. 248 Isidore of Seville. Etymologies IX.iv.2-7. Emphasis mine. It is to be noticed that words such as popolo in modern Italian, or its analogous term people in English, Volk in German, and so on and so forth, do not help us understanding the difference between vulgus and populus in Medieval Latin. In fact, we no longer distinguish these two notions with the same conceptual precision Isidore was able to do in the Middle Ages. Moreover, it is to add that after Romanticism, popolo has become a notion strictly tied with that of nation and state. In fact, we distinguish the notion of the modern nation state from early forms of statehood because the processes of nation-state building in the modern age were led through the ideological equation of state = nation = people (It. popolo). In modernity, the two Latin notions of populus and vulgus were blurred, establishing a homology between them. In order to keep the alterity between medieval meanings and the modern ones, I maintain the medieval distinction as a key element to interpret Dantes linguistic problem. 249 Ibid. 250 Ibid. 251 Isidore mentions the Greek term lapis for populus and, by considering its etymology laj, establishes a parallel between populus and stone. 252 We also find a similar distinction between populus and vulgus in Genoese writings in the second

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The notion of will is indeed the central concept through which the distinction between populus and vulgus can be understood. In the populace there is a common willing association through law, while the vulgus is scattered because of the absence of a kind of collective will that could allow dispersed people to associate themselves and become a community. What is at play within the distinction between populus and vulgus then is the relationship between collective and individual wills and notions of citizenship and city governance, which is possible only when and where some form of collective will exists beside the individual one. As Brunetto Latini indeed pointed out in his Trsor, Maintes citez sont ou le governement de la vie de lhomme est destruis, et vivent disoluement, car chascuns vait aprs sa volent.253 Now, refocusing our attention on Dantes expression locutio vulgarium gentium, both Del Virgilios precise use of the term vulgus and Isidores definition of the notion sheds a particular light on Dantes aim to help the speech of the vulgarium gentium. The expression vulgares gentes used in the plural form at the beginning of the
half of twelfth century. For instance, in the context of the construction of new walls of the city of Genoa in 1159, Caffaro talks about the homines civitatis et plebeium secundum quarteria et alias suas distinctiones, i.e. the men of the city and the plebs had to be differentiated through neighborhoods and other sub-divisions. See Giovanna Petti Balbi. Una citt e il suo mare. Genova nel Medioevo. Bologna: CLUEB, 1991. 125-126. I suggest that the notion of multitude living here and there as they like, i.e. the vulgus according to Isidore, will also play a certain role in the ways the vagabond and the beggar was perceived in the Enlighenment. As Robert Castel pointed out in his revealing study on the transformation of the social question, the vagabonds and beggars are described by Les Trosne as the most terrible scourge of the countryside. [...] They are, if one can speak figuratively, like enemy troops spead out on the surface of the territory, who live as they like, just as in a conquered nation upon which they levy virtual taxes which they call by the name of alms. As Castel emphasizes, the hardest element to accept for Les Trosne were not simply the alms, but the fact that these vagabonds were not domiciled. Indeed, Les Trosne laid claim to the right to give alms to beggars who are domiciled, who have a dwelling, a family. Robert Castel. From Manual Workers to Wage Laborers. Transformation of the Social Question. New Brunswick-London: Transaction Publishers, 2003. 65. 253 Brunetto Latini. Trsor. II.49.1. It. Trans: ci sono molte citt dove il governo della vita delluomo distrutto, e vivono in modo dissoluto, perch ognuno va dietro alla propria volont. English Trans.: Although many cities do well, there are some in which the government of men is destroyed and where

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Latin treatise is a hapax legomenon. It is worthy to notice that, in Dantes vernacular writings, the expression gente volgare/volgare gente is widely used, but we never find the plural form genti volgari.254 This forces us to posit the question about the conceptual meaning of the plural form in the Latin version. According to Aristide Marigos critical edition of the De vulgari eloquentia (1938), the plural is simply a stylistic vulgarism, implying that it has no specific relevance for our understanding of Dantes theorization on the vernacular eloquence. However, it seems to me that Dantes use of the plural form is a sign that remarks the multiplicity and diversity of the vulgar people(s). I place the s in parentheses because the Latin gentium embodies an ambiguity for the modern reader. Indeed, gentes can be translated either as people (It. persone, gente) or as peoples (It. popoli).255 Moreover, the multiplicity in the term gentium is expressed in two ways. On the one hand, it is inscribed in the grammar of the plural genitive -ium; on the other, the plural is incorporated in the Latin collective noun gens, which could refer, either to a multiplicity of people (persone, gente) or to a singular people (popolo). Therefore, after a close and reflective reading of Dantes texts, it is difficult to detach Dantes notion of vulgarium gentium from both a social and an ethnic dimension. In reading both the De vulgari eloquentia and the Convivio intertextually one could recognize that Dantes views are elaborated through diverse discourses in which
people live in dissolute fashion, for each person works for his own interests (191). The only exception is Conv. I.ix.5, in which, however, we find only the adjective volgari but not genti volgari. 255 For instance, Dante uses gente in the second sense as a synonym for population in Dve I.ix. 10. The ambivalence of the term gentes (and its declined forms) is also evident in the English translations. The term is indeed translated with people in Dve I.i.1 (vulgarium gentium), and with peoples in Dve I.vi.3 (plerasque nationes et gentes), Dve I.ix.11 (multarum gentium). This is why I suggest to employ the term people(s), which, although more artificial, preserve the ambivalence of the Latin
254

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takes on ethnic, social, and cultural affiliations are at play. Moreover, Dantes mapping of the diverse vulgares accounts for the different ethno-linguistic groups (gentes in Latin) inhabiting the world after the punishment of Babel. The notion of vulgarium gentium used in the De vulgari eloquentia condenses therefore ethnic and social semantic ciphers. Although the term gentium incorporates a complex semantic cluster, there is nonetheless a trait that keeps all the embodied ciphers together, that is, the fact that these gentes are vulgares. This trait indicates that the will of the gentium is fragmented, incoherent, and dissociated, since they, incapable of discernment, follow only their individual will (singulari arbitrio, according to Dve I.ix.11) In other words, the vulgares gentes are not associated through a coherent collective will, i.e. a type of common law and willing association the notion of populus rather possessed. Members of the vulgus do not recognize each other as affiliated to a common law or willing association. This also helps to highlight a crucial difference between the stability of grammar against the variability of the vernacular idioms. As Dve I.ix.11 suggests, grammar is stable because many people(s) (multarum gentium) gave their consent/consensus (de comuni consensu) to compose an inalterable and regulated linguistic identity, while the vernacular idioms are variable because they are conditioned by diverse individual arbitrations (singulari arbitrio). Hinc molti sunt inventores gramatice facultatis: que quidem gramatica nichil aliud est quam quedam inalterabilis locutionis ydemptitas diversibus temporibus atque locis. Hec cum de comuni consensu multarum gentium fuerit regulata, nulli singulari arbitrio videtur obnoxia, et per consequens nec variabilis esse potest.256
term gentes. Dve I.ix.11.

256

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In other words, Dante understood that the Babelic character of Europe and Italy was related to the absence of a common consent/consensus, that is, a common collective will or concordia (using a pivotal term of De Monarchia). Both in his political treatise and the Comedy, Dante points out in clear terms that what makes people and communities disaggregated and conflicting is vice and sin. As Justinians words in Par. 7 highlights, sin makes the human creature servile and deprives him/her of nobility (i.e. vulgar according to Convivio). Solo il peccato quel che la disfranca, e falla dissimile al sommo bene; per che del lume suo poco simbianca. 257 Accordingly, sin is what Dante considers the ultimate root of the vulgares gentess vulgarity. This last point leads me to diverge from the commonly accepted understanding of the term vulgare as a synonym of illiterate, introduced by Pier Vincenzo Mengaldo in his critical edition of Dantes treatise. Mengaldo supported his choice by suggesting a parallel between Dve I.i.1 and the notion of illiterate in Conv. I.ix.5, when he glossed that la chiosa esatta [per vulgarium gentium] Conv. I.ix.5. The same argument was provided in the Enciclopedia dantesca, according to which scivola senzaltro dal significato generico a quello pi specifico lesempio di Cv I ix 5 moltaltra nobile gente, non solamente maschi ma femmine volgari e non literati, cos come il vulgarium gentium di VE I i 1 (i due casi si appoggiano a vicenda). If we observe this argument closely, we find that it is not so straightforward as it appears. Indeed, in Conv. I.ix.5, what Dante proposes is not simply a definition of terms such as volgare, literate, and illiterate. In fact, what is at stake in Conv. I.ix.5 is not
257

Par. 7.78-80. See also Conv. III.ii.5-6.

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literacy, but the commodification of literature. As Dante argues in this passage, kings, princes, knights, and many noble people were vulgar because, by following il giudicio falso e vile / di quei che voglion che di gentilezza / sia principio ricchezza,258 they used literacy and literature as a mercantile commodity. Therefore, Dante was not referring to the literacy of people, but to what he considered an immoral demeanor of specific strata of the noble class, which, led by their greedy desire for wealth, treated literature as a donna meretrice and thus, for Dante, should be considered vulgar rather than noble literate people.259 Now, it is worth noticing that as avarice and greed can make the ruling groups vulgar, likewise the illustrious vernacular language has, for Dante, the power to give glory to those people who, though coming from subaltern groups (domestici), can become illuminated and elevate themselves over kings, princes, and aristocrats. As Dante points out in Dve I.xvii.4-5, the illustrious vernacular language he was hunting has the power to change the desires and ideas of people, to reverse their wills and elevate them beyond their social positions.
258 259

Le dolci rime damor chi solia in Conv. IV, vv. 16-17. It is clear that Dantes passage is highly sarcastic and ironic. It is curious that commentators of this passage did not notice the crucial role played by irony here, which led Vasoli and De Robertis to consider the term volgari as equivalent to those who ignorano la lingua latina, see note 5 p. 62 in Cesare Vasoli and Domenico De Robertis, eds. Convivio. In Opere minori. Vol. 1.2. Milano: Ricciardi, 1979. Accordingly, Franco Lo Piparo viewed Dantes expression volgari e non litterati as referring to un pubblico che ha poca pratica di scrittura (un pubblico non grammaticale) ed perci raggiungibile soprattutto mediante la comunicazione orale. For Lo Piparo, lelenco dei volgari e non litterati comprende abbiamo visto principi, baroni, cavalieri, e moltaltra nobile gente. un pubblico tecnicamente non litterato ma ha tutte le opportunit e i mezzi, anche finanziari, per organizzare letture e recite pubbliche. un pubblico che si istruisce per via orale. Non sa leggere il latino ma intende il volgare, non solo quello popolare ma anche quello illustre. It is noteworthy that the passage before has said exactly the opposite: literature had been left to those noble people who used it as a donna meretrice. This leads me to claim that in the conjunction between volgari and non litterati lies an ironic counterpoint, through which Dante was contending that the noble people, although possessing the literatura are not really litterati, but vulgar people, since they greedily used literature to earn money. E a vituperio di loro dico che non si deono chiamare literati, per che non acquistano la lettera per lo suo uso, ma in quanto per quella guadagnano denari o dignitate; s come non si dee chiamare citarista

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Quod autem exaltatum sit potestate, videtur. Et quid maioris potestatis est quam quod humana corda versare potest, ita ut nolentem volentem et volentem nolentem faciat, velut ipsum et fecit et facit? Quod autem honore sublimet, in promptu est. Nonne domestici sui reges, marchiones, comites et magnates quoslibet fama vincunt? Minime hoc probatione indiget. Dante also alludes to the transformative power of the illustrious vernacular language at the beginning of the treatise, when he claims, on the one side, that his doctrine of the vernacular eloquence would have been helpful for the locutio vulgarium gentium and, on the other, that with his treatise he whishes to illuminate the capacity of discernment of those who wander through the streets like blind people. 260 As is stated in Conv. IV.iii.5 and IV.25, the gente volgare is dogni ragione ignuda, and incapable of discerning the three passions needed to have a good life (buona vita)261 a type of goodness that should characterize the noble people, according to Conv. IV.xxix.10. The inability to discern virtue from vice is then for Dante what keeps people away from freedom making them wander here and there rather than follow the right way (rectitude).262 In this respect, vices are strictly related to, or even caused by, the inability to discern passions and virtues from vices.263
chi tiene la cetera in casa per prestarla per prezzo, e non usarla per sonare. Conv. I.ix.3. volentes discretionem aliqualiter lucidare illorum qui tanquam ceci ambulant per plateas, plerunque anterior posteriora putantes. Dve I.i.1. 261 According to Convivio IV.25, there are tre passioni necessarie al fondamento della nostra vita buona: luna si Stupore; laltra si Pudore; la terza si Verecundia. For Dante, avegna che la volgare gente questa distinzione non discerna. Stupor is exactly what Dante, in his epistle to Moroello, Marquis of Malaspina, claims to feel when a woman (mulier) appeared to him as a thunderbolt from above (fulgur descendens). See Epistle 4.2-3. Similarly, as is well known, in his encounter with God in the closing verses of Par. 33.140-1, Dante states that his mind fu percossa da un fulgore coming from the divine will (in che sua voglia venne). 262 According Conv. I.viii.14, atto libero quando una persona va volentieri ad alcuna parte, che si mostra nel tener volto lo viso in quella; atto sforzato quando contra voglia si va, che si mostra in non guardare ne la parte dove si va. In addition, the interdependence between ability of discernment and illustriousness is witnessed also in Dve I.xiv.6, when Dante explains that even the Bolognese doctores illustres, capable of vulgarium discretione, were not the exemplary users of the courtly and illustrious vernacular he was looking for. 263 As pointed out in Epistle 6.22-23, Nec advertitis dominantem cupidinem, quia ceci estis, venenoso susurrio blandientem, nec captivantem vos in lege peccati, ac sacratissimis legibus que iustitie naturalis
260

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Given all this and considering the textual proximity between the two objectives stated at the beginning of the treatise the first, to help the locutio vulgarium gentium; the second, to illuminate the discernment of people wandering like the blind Mengaldos equation of vulgarium with illiterate can be further complicated. Since the treatise is written in Latin, we should suppose that the people whose discernment Dante whishes to enlighten (lucidare) were not the illiterate, but the literate readers of the treatise who, arguably, belonged to that clerus which vulgaria tempnit, as del Virgilio will later state in his Carmen to Dante. Therefore, we can suppose that the vulgar people whose locutio Dante wished to help are not only illiterate people who spoke a vernacular idiom, but also, and in the first place, the literate readers of the Dve who are characterized as wandering here and there as if blind. 264 And, as said in the harsh and keen rhymes 265 of Le dolci rime
imitantur ymaginem, papere vetantem; obesrvantia quarum, si leta, si libera, non tantum non servitus esse probatur, quin ymo perspicaciter intuenti liquet u test ipsa summa libertas. Nam quid aliud hec nisi liber cursus voluntatis in actum quem suis leges mansuetis expedient? Itaque solis existentibus liberis qui voluntarie legi obedient, quos, vos essere consebitis qui, dum pretenditis libertatis affectum, contra leges universas in legume principem conspiratis? 264 From this perspective, it is interesting to notice that Dante addresses with a very direct tone his reader in the chapter on the Tower of Babel, which is presented as a revealing exemplum for all human sins. Dve I.vii.2-3. O semper natura nostra prona peccatis! O ab initio et nunquam desinens nequitatrix! Num fuerat satis ad tui correptionem quod, per primam prevaricationem eluminata, delitiarum exulabas a patria? Num satis quod, per universalem familie tue luxuriem et trucitatem, unica reservata domo, quicquid tui iuris erat cataclismo pererat, et <que> commiseras tu animalia celi terreque iam luerant ? Quippe satis extiterat. Sed, sicut proverbialiter dici solet, Non ante tertium equitabis, misera miserum maluisti ad equum. Ecce, lector, quod vel oblitus homo vel vilipendens disciplinas priores, et avertens oculos a vicibus que remanserant, tertio isurrexit ad verbera, per superbam stultitiam presumendo. English trans.: Oh human nature, always inclined towards sin! Engaged in evil from the beginning, and never changing your ways! Was it not enough to correct you that, banished from the light for the first transgression, you should live in exile from the delights of your homeland? Was it not enough that, because of the all-pervading lust and cruelty of your race, everything that was yours should have perished in a cataclysm, one family alone being spared, and that the creatures of earth and sky should have had to pay for the wrongs that you had committed? It should indeed have been enough. But, as we often say in the form of a proverb, not before the third time will you ride; and you, wretched humanity, chose to mount a fractious steed. And so, reader, the human race, either forgetful or disdainful of earlier punishments, and averting its eyes from the bruises that remained, came for a third time to deserve a beating, putting its trust in its own foolish pride. Emphasis mine. The movement in the passage from the nostra natura (our) to its interpellation with the tu and tuus (you and yours) to the final one to

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damor chi solia in Conv. IV, numerous are lingannati and li-erranti against whom his canzone was addressed.266 If so, a more careful scrutiny of the distinction between clerics and laypersons is germane to a fuller understanding of Dantes linguistic project. In his Trsor, Brunetto Latini defines the power relationship between cleric and lay by emphasizing the respective position and function of the sovereign (signore) and the subalterns (subiez) in the social structure. In doing so, he also conceives a conceptual square in which the sovereign is paralleled to the clerics and the subalterns to the laypersons: Sovereign Subaltern Cleric Lay

In addition, according to Brunetto Latini, this square is interrelated to the labor division between intellectual and manual workers. Indeed, li sires est por garder ses subiez, et il sont por obeir a son seingnor, et les uns et les autres beent au profit de la comune compaingnie des genz sens tort et sens honte. Et ja soit ce que li un soi[en]t clers (dont [li uns] nos mostre la religion et la foi Jhesu Crist et la gloire des bons et lenfer des mauvais, les autres sont juges, ou mires, ou dautre mestier de clergie) ; et les autres sont lais (dont les [uns] font les maisons, les autres cortivent terre gaaingnable, les autres sont fevres ou courduaniers ou dautre mestier que il soient) je di que il sont toz entendanz a celui bien qui apartient a la paisible comunaut des homes et des citez ; por quoi il apert que le bien ou entent le governeor des autres est plus noble et plus honorable de toz autres, car il les adrece toz et toz sont por adescier lui. 267
the you-reader sounds particular revealing of Dantes intendment to illuminate the ethical discernment of the reader. 265 Conv. IV, canzone, v. 14. 266 Ibid. vv. 140-1. 267 Brunetto Latini. Trsor II.50.3. Italian Trans.: il signore ha la funzione di salvaguardare i propri sudditi, ed essi hanno il compito di ubbidire al loro signore, e gli uni e gli altri mirano al bene della societ senza ingiustizia e senza disonore. E sebbene gli uni siano chierici (dei quali gli uni mostrano la religione e la fede di Ges Cristo e la gloria dei buoni e linferno dei cattivi, gli altri sono giudici o medici, o di unaltra professione intellettuale) e gli altri siano laici (dei quali alcuni fanno le case, altri lavorano la terra coltivabile, altri ancora sono fabbri o calzolai o fanno un qualsiasi altro mestiere), dico che tutti tendono a quel bene che proprio della pacifica comunit degli uomini e della citt. English Trans.: the lord is meant to watch over men and they are meant to obey thier lord, and both strive for

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On the one side, there are the clerics who comprise functionaries of religious institutions, judges, physicians, and intellectuals; on the other side, there are the laypersons, composed by workers, peasants, and other manual laborers. In other words, the first square can be now expanded into the following one: Sovereign Subaltern Cleric Lay Intellectual work Manual work

The labor division between intellectual work and manual work corresponds to the medieval educational division between the artes in liberal and mechanical ones. The liberal arts are seven and organized into the trivium, which includes the arts of language (grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic) and the quadrivium composed of physics, metaphysics, ethics, and theology.268 In his Didascalicon, Hugh of Saint Victor lists seven mechanical arts including theatrics, weaving, blacksmithing, navigation, agriculture, medicine, hunting, architecture. While the liberal arts were aimed at wisdom and knowledge, the purpose of the mechanical arts was to produce material goods. Given this, we can further expand the scheme above into the following one: Sovereign Subaltern Cleric Lay Intellectual work Manual work artes liberale artes meccanicae wisdom and knowledge material goods

the advantage and the common good of the people, without worng or shame. Although some are clerics and some of these teach religion and the faith of Jesus Christ and the glory of the good and the hell of the bad, others are judges or doctors or have some other capacity in the clergy; others are laborers, with some making houses and others cultivating the arable land, and others still are smiths and cobblers or practice some other trade. I say that they all work towards the common and peaceful good of the cities. (192). 268 See David Wagner, ed. The Seven Liberal Arts in the Middle Ages. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1983. On the history of eloquence see Galletti A. Leloquenza (dalle origini al XVI secolo): Storia dei generi

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If we follow Mengaldos translation of vulgarium gentium as illiterate, we should suppose that the adjective vulgar corresponds to that of lay. However, since the distinction between lay and cleric was commonly used in medieval Italy and Europe,269 and given that in Dve Dante never uses it in an explicit way, it is reasonable to be skeptical on this presupposed correspondence between the two terms. Moreover, while Dante widely used the notion of volgare in his writings, (except for the Comedy, where the term volgare is a hapax legomenon), the distinction between laico and clerico occurs only once in the passage of Inf. 18.112-117: Quivi venimmo; e quindi gi nel fosso vidi gente attuffata in uno sterco cha da li umani privadi parea mosso. E mentre ch'io l gi con l'occhio cerco, vidi un col capo s di merda lordo, che non para s era laico o cherco.270 Needless to say, in this passage the rhyming triad sterco-cerco-cherco (dungsearch-cleric) is irreverently subversive. Indeed, these rhyming verses and the potential displacement of the hierarchical power structure between laypersons and clerics in the dung of Malebolge fundamentally aims at subverting the social order built through an essentializing correlation between labor division and power distribution. As readers of Convivio know, Dante connects the liberal arts to the seven heavens of Paradise.271 While the description of the liberal arts and the sciences points to a
letterari. Milano: Vallardi, 1938. For Dante and the liberal arts see Giuseppe Mazzotta. Dantes Vision and the Circle of Knowledge. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1993. 269 For instance, Jan Van Boendale wrote his treatise Der Leken Spieghel to acculturate the laymen, i.e. the illiterate people. See Jan Van Boendale. Der Leken Spieghel. A translation of Book III.15 is in Erik Kooper. Medieval Dutch Literature in its European Context. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1994. 245-260. 270 English Trans.: There we came; and from there I saw, down in the ditch, people immersed in dung that seemed to have come from human privies. And while I am searching with my eyes down there, I saw one with his head so filthy with shit that whether he was lay or clerck did not show. 271 A li sette primi [cieli] rispondono le sette scienze del Trivio e del Quadrivio, cio Grammatica,

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semantic field of paradisiac loftiness, the figurative language Dante uses to refer to his dealings with them are often derived from the field of the mechanical arts. In other words, Dante represents his own social position as that of a lay manual worker, i.e. a subaltern272 placed, as Convivio also makes clear, at the bottom of the table of the wise intellects. In the Duecento there are different cultural changes that deeply affected both the self-perception of the people and the prominent emergence of the Popolo in the political life of the communes. The education of children was a revolution in Florentine politics and society, a revolution that made the prominence of the popolo possible, as John Najemy emphasized. In Florence, as in many other north and central Italian cities, a veritable revolution in the history of education occurred. For the first time in European history, literacy spread significantly beyond the clerical establishment and elite classes to include more modest merchants, shopkeepers, artisans, and even some laborers. Literacy obviously means different things at each of these levels, but by 1300 the large majority of Florence men and a sizable minority of women could read and write, at least in the vernacular, at basic levels of competence needed for keeping account books, religious devotions, and participation in their guilds and confraternities. A small number had formal training in Latin, first in the language and then in the study of classical authors, and some went on to careers as jurists or churchmen when they did not join the family business. The real revolution was that thousands of families below the level of the elite educated their children.273 In addition to this revolution in education, as I have also recalled in the two previous chapters, other radical changes occurred in the religious life of the Duecento. These include the rise of heretical movements, the emergence of mendicant orders, and
Dialettica, Rettorica, Arismetrica, Musica, Geometria e Astrologia. A lottava spera, cio a la stellata, risponde la scienza naturale, che Fisica si chiama, e la prima scienza, che si chiama Metafisica; a la nona spera risponde la Scienza morale; ed al cielo quieto risponde la scienza divina, che Teologia appellata. See Conv. II.xiii.7-8. 272 I use the term in its etymological sense of being beneath and other with respect to the one(s) who stay(s) over the others, i.e. the sovereign(s) (sovrano). 273 John Najemy. A History of Florence. Oxford: Blackwell, 2006. 45.

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the creation of legal secularizing principles and codes that functioned as new agents in religious life. 274 As it is well known, along with his personal re-reading of the Bible (along with Aristotle, and Virgil), which contributed to challenge the worldly authority of the Pope,275 Dantes model of the Roman Catholic Church was also inspired by the examples of Saint Francis and Saint Dominics teachings. 276 In Paradise, we find both the most explicit praise for the movements began by Francis and Dominic and the harshest critique of their followers who forgot the teaching of the two saints about poverty and humility. 277 Moreover, it is useful to recall that Dante had an ambivalent relationship with the popolo of his contemporary Florence. On one hand, as Najemy highlighted, Dantes punishment of elite families in the Comedy and his contentions in particular in Paradiso 16, the canto of Cacciaguida, are inspired by the ideological framework typical of the popolo. On the other hand, in the same canto, Dante saw his contemporary Florence ruined in comparison to the noble city of the twelfth century Florence. In the epistles,
274

In the Florentine context, by the 1220s the Franciscans and Dominicans were established at opposite ends of the city, respectively at Santa Croce and Santa Maria Novella, where they later constructed the enormous basilicas that still dominate their neighborhoods. [] The friars were popular among immigrants in need of the community and social services that the new orders provided or supported: care for the sick, alms for the poor, lodging for travelers, honorable burials, but also preaching and organized devotion. Some Florentines joined the orders, but many more from all over the city imitated the forms and aims of mendicant piety in lay society: social commitment, expressed through practical attention to the needs and problems of urban society, pastoral work in the world, the sanctification of everyday life, renunciation of ostentious wealth, and, in all these respects, the imitation of Christ. Ibid. 50-51. 275 See Mon. III. x.3-20. 276 For the relationship between Dante and the Franciscan tradition, see Nick Havely. Dante and the Franciscans: Poverty and the Papacy in the Commedia. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004. On Saint Dominic, in Par. 12.56-100, Dante makes Saint Bonaventure claim that il santo atleta / benigno a suoi, ed a nimici crudo [] contro al mondo errante [] con lofficio apostolico si mosse, / quasi torrente calta vena preme: / e nelli sterpi eretici percosse / limpeto suo pi vivamente quivi / dove le resistenze eran pi grosse. 277 In the fourteenth century, poetic critiques of the friars became an established genre.See Antonio Puccis I fra minori del la pover vita and I fra predicator non mangian carne. In Giuseppe Corsi, ed. Rimatori del Trecento. Torino: UTET, 1969. 815-816.

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Dante had defined his condition of exile by recalling the figural city of Babylon, 278 and contemporary fellow Florentines as new Babylonians (alteri Babilonii) who were building a corrupt city. 279 The linkage between Florence and Babel could have not been more radical and subversive for the ruling class of the city. If we take this simile seriously, we could argue that, according to Dante, those who led the city of Florence, like Nimrod in the Dve and the Comedy, were placed at the bottom of the social hierarchy and had the least capacity to speak before God. In the old Florence, Dante praised the fact that the government of the city was based on an ideal good citizenry. For Dante, the notion of a good citizenry was also related to the fact that the city was not yet led by the gente nuova (Inf. 16) composed of merchants and bankers, but by the artisans and humble workers. In other words, the leading value of the city was not the auri sacra fames280 in the sense Virgil used it and the subiti guadagni,281 but justice, peace, and balanced social relationships among citizens. Dantes praises of the old Florence in which Cacciaguida lived is not detached from an idea of labor distribution. In Cacciaguidas age, Florence was not yet one of the centers of early European capitalism. As Najemy has argued, for Dante, Cacciaguidas city was a community of loyal citizenry pure down to the humblest
278 279

See Epistle 7.30, addressed to the Emperor Henry VII. Epistle 6.8. Quid, fatua tali oppinione summota, tanquam alteri Babilonii, pium deserentes imperium nova regna temptatis, ut alia sit Florentina civilitas, alia sit Romana? 280 Virgil used the expression auri sacra fames in the invective against avarice in Aen. 3.56-7: Quid non mortalia pectora cogis, Auri sacra fames? Dante uses it in the vernacular version sacra fame delloro in Purg. 22.40-1 and is implied in the question di che sapore loro? in Purg. 20.114-5. Moreover, as Durling and Martinez have emphasized, the term infamia at verse 114 puns on Vergils fames. Dante Alighieri. Purgatorio. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003. 344 note v. 114-5. For a discussion of Dantes use of Virgils expression in Purg. 22, see Ronald Martinez. La sacra fame delloro (Purgatorio 22, 41) tra Virgilio e Stazio: dal testo allinterpretazione. Letture classensi 18 (1989): 177185. 281 Inf. 16.

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artisan. Dantes language [in Par. XV-XVII] directly echoes the popolo here: the old Florence of his imagination was a city of artisans, guildsmen, exercising their arti. The eminent families whose names Cacciaguida evokes were not yet undone by their pride or ruinous factionalism and were still committed to an ethic of good citizenship and civic duty.282 Moreover, it is also noteworthy that the historical period in which Cacciaguida lived is a fundamental moment for Dantes view of the history of the vernacular language. Indeed, it was the time in which, according to what Dante claims in Vita Nova 25, vernacular poetry originated. Thus, in addition to the innovations in the perception of the intellectual work introduced during the Duecento, the role of labor distribution and the interplay of labor, language, and politics in Dantes work ought to be kept in mind. In the cantos of Cacciaguida, Dante imagines a form of community of artisans in which the shared ethics leading the popolo was not yet corrupted by the new social groups of merchants and bankers or by peasants who have migrated from the countryside in order to participate in the mercantile development the city could offer them. From an ideological viewpoint, Dantes aim in condemning Florentine elites was to turn the popolo of his age toward the idealized community of the guilds in which nobility and good citizenry were strictly associated values. 283 From this perspective, Dante elaborates a path that does not simply follow the binaries of sovereign/subaltern and cleric/lay that Brunetto used to parallel the power and labor distributions in the social organization of the communes. This is because and, as I contend, Dante seems to be particularly conscious of it Duecento and Trecento poets
282 283

John Najemy. A History of Florence. 61. On the political and juridical relationships between popolo and arti see also Giovanni de Vergottini. Arti e popolo nella prima met del sec. XIII. Milano: Giuffr, 1943.

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are no longer among the clerics.284 They are laypersons and, in writing in the vernacular, they express an innovating alternative with regard to the traditional clerics and the new proto-humanist ones, who, as del Virgilio remarked vulgaria tempnit. Dante never explicitly represents himself as a cleric, but as a hunter, a knight, a peasant, a smith, among others. In other words, Dante removes the social identity of cleric from his intellectual work and reconceives it employing metaphors from the mechanical arts. This does not mean that his intellectual work, as well as the work of other poets and intellectuals of the period writing in the vernacular, could be seen as the work of illiterates, as most translations of Dve I.i.1 might lead one to believe.
284

See Roberto Antonelli and Simonetta Bianchini. Dal clericus al Poeta. In Alberto Asor Rosa, ed. Letteratura italiana. Vol. 2. Torino: Einaudi, 1983. 171-227.

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CHAPTER 4 AGAINST BABEL, AGAINST DISPERSION: NIMROD AND ADAM, THE PANTHER AND THE VELTRO
Quivi si vive e gode del tesoro che sacquist piangendo nello essilio di Babilon, ove si lasci loro. Dante, Par. 23.135 Quelli che non danno cose (in senso largo) non possono dare parole. Gramsci, Appunti di glottologia (1912-1913)

At the beginning of the Trecento, when Italian vernacular poetry began to be historicized and canonized in written anthologies, 285 Dante imagines his search for the illustrious vernacular language as a hunt in the Italian wood (ytalia silva, Dve I.xv.1). This hunt is configured as a rational investigation (rationalibus investigemus, Dve I.xvi.1) of a supreme object (sola supprema venamur, Dve II.vi.3) through the laborious use of discernment. As the hunting metaphor also implies and Dve II.iv.10 confirms, Dante was aware that to his objetive was not easy to attain, since the skills and competence needed to discern are, for Dante, particularly difficult to acquire 286 an idea already emphasized in Brunetto Latinis Trsor II.x.1.287 As I have shown in the previous chapter, Dantes twofold objective was to illuminate the understanding of the erring people and help the locutio vulgarium
285

For a recent account on the anthologization of Italian vernacular poetry in relation to Dante, see Justin Steinberg. Accounting for Dante. Notre Dame, IN: U of Notre Dame P, 2007. For the anthologies of the Canzonieri, see Lino Leonardi, ed. I canzonieri della lirica italiana delle origini. 4 vols. Firenze: SISMEL Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2001. 286 Cautionem atque discretionem hanc accipere, sicut decet, hic opus et labor est, quoniam numquam sine strenuitate ingenii et artis assiduitate scientiarumque habitu fiery potest. English Trans.: Learning the necessary caution and discernment is the difficult part, requiring much effort, since these can never be achieved without exertion of the intellect, dedicated study of technique, and immersion in knowledge. Dve II.iv.10. 287 la vertu de lentendement est engendree et escreue en lome par doctrine et par enseignement, et por ce li covient esperience et lonc tens. See Brunetto Latini. Trsor. II.x.1. Emphasis mine. English trans.

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gentium. If the rational discernment is the means through which Dante could help the locutio of dispersed vulgar people(s), his choice to write a doctrine of vernacular eloquence faces a Babelic situation that he means to confront and overcome. In other words, in focusing on the locutio vulgarium gentium, Dante had to confront the problem of Babel, understood not only as the well-known narrative told in Genesis but also as a typological expression of the political dispersion and linguistic confusion of his own historical times. Consequently, he had to re-conceive the myth of Adams original language in order to have a measure through which the Babelic dispersion of the vulgar people(s) and the linguistic confusion inhabiting Italy and Europe in the late Middle Ages might be transcended. From this perspective, Dantes doctrine of vernacular eloquence may be seen as an antidote against the Babelic confusion and Dante himself as Nimrods antitype. In Inf. 2.4, Dante depicts the journey of the Comedy as a war, a guerra s del cammino e s della pietade / che ritrarr la mente che non erra. 288 The warfare metaphor used to depict the enterprise of the Comedy ascribes to the journey of the exile-pilgrim Dante a sense of both reality and exceptionality. The poetic enterprise, whose reality the unerring mind wants to depict and maintain (ritrarr) a mind that contrasts with the erring understanding of vulgar people(s) in Dve , is both, as we readers know, a literary object and an intellectual struggle against the ethical, political, and intellectual corruption that caused the exile of its writer. In this respect, the Comedy enterprise is
The virtue of understanding is born and increases in man through doctrine and instruction, and for this long experience is needed (150). 288 English Trans.: The war both of the journey and of pity, / which memory, unerring, will depict.

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therefore both indicated as an artistic effort to re-call and depict the exilic journey of the pilgrim and an allegorical war against the corruption that produced the historical exile of Dante the poet. As Durling remarked in dealing with the audience(s) of the Dve, the use of warfare metaphors points to potential conflictual relationships between the author and his readers.289 Analogously, we can suppose that Cacciaguidas claims in Par. 17.129-132 that Dantes voice would have sounded to his contemporary readers molesta and have caused them a painful rogna is certainly noticeable in revealing Dantes self-perception of the war of position he was conducting. 290 Moreover, the reader of the Comedy, already from the first cantos, engages with different textual clues linked to a metaphoric language of warfare. In addition to the term war in Inf. 2.4, the term schiera in the expression volgare schiera of Inf. 1.105, alluding to a troop-like formation, stimulates an image of warfare. As other uses of the term suggest, schiera can indeed be metaphorically linked to the image of a troop as in Purg. 24.95, lo cavalier di schiera che cavalchi, or to a beehive in movement as in Par. 31.7, s come schiera dape, che sinfiora. In this respect, the schiera could be intertextually related respectively to the exercitus of pessimis whom Boethius opposes at the beginning of De Consolatio Philosophiae,291 and to the fourth of Virgils
289

Durling also adds that there is an implicit realization, I think in the choice of the metaphor of combat, which occurs in two passages: in the first, Dante is arguing that only the best poets should use the volgare illustre, just as the best horses should be reserved for the best knights. The second, speaking of Amor, tu vedi ben che questa donna, compares that poem to the special exploit appropriate to the day of a knights investiture. Robert Durling. The Audience(s) of the De vulgari eloquentia and the Petrose. In Dante Studies 110 (1992): 28. 290 From this perspective, the connection between the linguistic signifier of the name Cacciaguida and its meaning seems to be revealing. Caccia-guida is the guide of the hunt and/or the hunt of the guide. It is Dante himself to emphasize the significance of his relatives proper name also in its relation with the Christian baptism in Par. 15.135, insieme fui cristiano e Cacciaguida. 291 Itaque nihil est, quod ammirare, si in hoc vitae salo circumflantibus agitemur procellis, quibus hoc

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Georgics. Given this military sense, we can also counter-pose the vulgare schiera at the beginning of Inferno to the milizia di paradiso pointed out in the Empyrean, when Beatrice says to Dante that they emerged (siamo usciti fore) from the maggior corpo towards the ciel ch pura luce: luce intellettual, piena damore. In this place Dante will see luna e laltra milizia / di paradiso, e luna in quelli aspetti / che tu vedrai allultima giustizia.292 Moreover, coherently to the warfare figurative language employed by Dante, we should also notice that, in proximity to the verses concerning the poets emergence from the volgare schiera, the poet depicts the pilgrim as fighting against death (non vedi tu la morte che l combatte).293 Dante himself historicizes the difficult conditions of both the poet and the pilgrim, in particular when he challenges his own historical position with respect to Virgil (as a poet), and to Aeneas and Saint Paul (as a pilgrim). After confronting the danger of death acted in the narrative of the first canto through the intervention of the three fierce beasts Dante now interrogates his own capacity to come to the other world and consider three major characters of Western civilization: Virgil, i.e. the major poet of Ancient Rome for Dante; Aeneas, the founder of the Roman Empire and Dantes precursor, as the reader will definitely recognize later on in Par. 15-6;294 and Paul, an exemplary figure of the Church who ascended to Paradise, and, as witnessed by the fifth/sixth-century Latin Visio Pauli (Apocalypse of Paul), went to Hell, as only Christ had done before him.
maxime propositum est pessimis displicere. Quorum quidem tametsi est numerosus exercitus, spernendus tamen est, quoniam nullo duce regitur, sed errore tantum temere ac passim lymphante raptatur. Cons. Phil. I.3. Emphasis mine. 292 Par. 30.38-45. Emphasis mine. 293 Inf. 2.107 294 Aeneas went down to the Hades in order to meet his father Anchises and to learn from him the mission

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Ma io perch venirvi? O chi l concede? Io non Enea, io non Paulo sono: me degno a ci n io n altri crede. Per che, se del venire io mabbandono, temo che la venuta non sia folle: se savio; intendi me chi non ragiono. 295 Dantes self-interrogation through Virgil here is an important part of the strategy through which the poet wants to represent the conflict and doubtful position in which he both as a poet and as a pilgrim is placed. Moreover, as Durling and Martinez have pointed out, the raising of the question But, I, why come there? serves to emphasize the iconoclastic, in fact epoch-making importance of a journey to the other world being claimed by a layman and politically active private individual. 296 In other words, Dante depicts his historical position as a difference with regard to the historical auctoritas Virgil and the figural exempla of Aeneas and Saint Paul. The epoch-making character of the Comedy is also entailed in another, more subtle, dimension. This dimension no longer regards the relationship with past experiences of journeys to the other world, rather with the overcoming of what Dante in Dve II.ii.8 had configured as a limit of Italian vernacular poetry. In fact, Dantes depiction of his journey as a war allows us to consider the poema sacro that made the poet macro (Par. 15.1-3) as an attempt to overcome the fact that arma vero nullum latium adhuc invenio poetasse.297 According to Dante, while Italian poets had reached the

of the Roman Empire. Inf. 2.31-36. English trans.: But, I, why come there? Or who grants? I am / not Aeneas, I am not Paul; neither I nor others / believe me worthy of that. / Therefore, if I abandon myself to the journey, I fear / lest my coming may be folly. You are wise, you / understand better than I speak. 296 Robert M. Durling and Ronald L. Martinez. The Divine Comedy: Inferno. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1996. 50 note to Inf. 2.32. 297 Dve II.ii.8. English Trans.: As for arms, I find that no Italian has yet treated them in poetry.
295

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highest levels of poetry in dealing with the topics of love and rectitude,298 no such a level was reached for military topics. In stating this, Dante arguably is not only describing a difference between Italy and other European literatures, but, implicitly, he is also indicating a distance between modern Italian vernacular culture and classic Latin poems, in particular from Virgils Aeneid, which Arma virumque can[et]..., and Statius, presented in Purg. 22.55 as the poet of the crude armi / de la doppia trestizia di Giocasta. From this perspective, Dantes metaphorization of his own journey in the Comedy as a war could be seen as an attempt to emphasize not only the exceptionality of the pilgrims journey but also the innovative nature of the poets enterprise aimed at confronting and overcoming this deficiency in modern Italian vernacular poetry. Given that from a historical-anthropological viewpoint, hunting was the sport of European nobility and that the role of hunting in medieval society was exactly to prepare and teach young aristocrats for war,299 Dantes hunting in Dve can be read allegorically and intertextually as an attempt to prepare Dantes voice for the war of the Comedy. Although Dantes uses of hunting metaphors have received the critical attention of Roberto Mercuri, Lino Pertile, Giovanni Barberi Squarotti, Daniela Boccassini, 300 and, to
298

The exemplary poets for Dante are respectively Cino da Pistoia and Dante himself. See Dve II.ii. On the contrary, Dante found in provenal poetry exemplary poets for what he considered the three highest topics for the vernacular poetry, i.e. Bertand de Born for the arms, Arnaut Daniel for love, Gerald de Bornel for rectitude. 299 See Paolo Galloni. Il cervo e il lupo: caccia e cultura nobiliare nel Medioevo. Roma-Bari: Laterza, 1993 and Storia e cultura della caccia: dalla preistoria a oggi. Roma-Bari: Laterza, 2000; Johan Huizinga. Homo ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture. London: Routledge, 2000 (first edition 1949). On the topic of the hunt in literature, see also Giovanni Barberi Squarotti. Selvaggia dilettanza: la caccia nella letteratura italiana dalle origini a Marino. Venezia: Marsilio, 2000; Dennis P. Seniff. Noble Pursuits: Literature and the Hunt. Selected Articles. Ed. Diane M. Wright and Connie L. Scarborough. Newark, Del.: Juan de la Cuesta, 1992; Marcelle Thibaux. The Stag of Love: The Chase in Medieval Literature. Ithaca-London: Cornell UP, 1974. 300 See Roberto Mercuri. Semantica di Gerione: Il motivo del viaggio nella Commedia di Dante. Roma:

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a lesser extent, Maria Corti, Giorgio Agamben, and Teodolinda Barolini, 301 it is singular that the connection between the metaphor of warfare used to depict the journey of the Comedy and the hunting metaphor used in De vulgari eloquentia has been overlooked. In my view, the semantic interrelation between the two metaphors points to a possible intertextuality between the Latin treatise on vernacular eloquence and the poem. Yet, in what ways this intertextuality speaks for a thematic continuity or discontinuity? It is the aim of the remainder of this chapter to explore the ethical-political implications of Dantes use of the hunting metaphor in connection with his theorization of the illustrious vernacular language and to show the ways specific intertexts between the treatise and the poem can allow us to see both elements of thematic continuity and discontinuity. In particular, my focus will be on the ways the archetypal figure of the hunter may be placed in intertextual and interdiscursive relation with the Dve, with the intervention of the veltro foreseen in Inf. 1, and with the figure of Adam in Paradiso 26. I will show that Dantes representation of Adam (Dve I.iv-vi and Par. 26), Nimrod (Dve.I.vii; Inf. 31; Purg. 12.34-36; Par. 26.126), the panther (Dve I.xvi) and the veltro (Inf. 1) can be seen as part of a complex typological and theological framework through
Bulzoni, 1984 and Genesi della tradizione letteraria italiana in Dante, Petrarca e Boccaccio. In Alberto Asor Rosa, ed. Letteratura italiana: Storia e geografia. Vol. 7.1. Torino: Einaudi, 1987. 229455; Lino Pertile. Il nodo di Bonagiunta, le penne di Dante e il Dolce Stil Novo. Lettere italiane 26.1 (Jan-March 1994): 44-75 (republished in La punta del disio: Semantica del desiderio nella Commedia. Fiesole: Cadmo, 2005. 85-113); Giovanni Barberi Squarotti. Selvaggia dilettanza; Daniela Boccassini. Il volo della mente. Falconeria e Sofia nel mondo mediterraneo. Islam, Federico II, Dante. Ravenna: Longo, 2003 and Falconry as a Transmutative Art: Dante, Frederick II, and Islam. Dante Studies 125 (2007): 157-82. 301 Maria Corti. Percorsi dellinvenzione: Il linguaggio poetico e Dante. Torino: Einaudi, 1993. 87; Corti. De Vulgari Eloquentia. In Alberto Asor Rosa, ed. Letteratura Italiana. Le Opere. Torino: Einaudi, 1992. 193 and 199-200; Giorgio Agamben . La caccia della lingua. In Categorie italiane. Venezia: Marsilio, 1996; Teodolinda Barolini. Dante and the Origins of Italian Literary Culture. New York: Fordham UP, 2006. 281-303.

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which to discuss ethical and political implications of Dantes conceptualization of an illustrious vernacular language. In this framework, the veltro can be re-conceived in two ways. On one side, it can be seen as the hunting dog needed by Dante the hunter (as an anti-type of the robustus venator Nimrod) to dispel the vicious beasts encountered at the beginning of the journey and fulfill the hunting project begun with the Latin treatise. On the other, it can be compared to Dantes own mission as a poet to chase away the two master poets in the vernacular, Guido Guinizelli and Guido Cavalcanti. By chasing away the beasts and the preceding major poetic authorities in the vernacular, Dante also hopes and anticipates to reach the glory of the language, which, arguably, is, on the one side, metaphorized in the Dve as the sweet scent produced by the panther and, on the other, typologically expressed in the momentous encounter between the pilgrim and Adam in Par. 26. I will therefore suggest that Dante introduces Adam in Par. 26.80ff. for at least two reasons. First, as Contini pointed out, Dante viewed in Adam a justification (blasone interno in Continis terms) for his poetic and linguistic project.302 Second, by posing the question about which tongue gave rise to Nimrods language and produced Babels confusion, I argue that in Par. 26 Dante aimed to exculpate Adams historical language from any possible charge of generating Babel. Since Adams language was already dead when Nimrod was planning the construction of the Tower, his project could not be related to Adams language. The historical discontinuity between Adams and Nimrods languages makes the latter the only one accountable for the Babelic confusion. Therefore,
302

Quei versi sulla lingua di Adamo sono una sorta di blasone interno alla Commedia, ad autogiustificare il paradosso del poema sacro in una lingua peritura. Gianfranco Contini. Dante come personaggiopoeta della Commedia. In Varianti e altra linguistica: una raccolta di saggi (1938-1968). Torino:

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as I draw my conclusions, Adam can be conceived as a type of both the panther, which creates a joyful fragrance (in my view, also an allegory for the poetic glory Dante was hoping to reach with the Comedy), and of the veltro, which will chase away (caccer, Inf. 1.109) the power-hungry she-wolf and dispel any attempt to produce a new corrupt Babel in history.

1. Nimrod and the Overthrown Hierarchy: Speaking Subalterns and Crying Rulers
The primeval history portrayed in the book of Genesis narrates how, in his blessing and punishing, God multiplied, diversified, and dispersed humanity across the earth. After the ruinous event of the Flood, the only human beings living on the earth were Noah, his wife, and their three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, from whose lineage descended Cush, the ancestor of Nimrod. According to the Biblia Vulgata, Nimrod is portrayed as a potens in terra (Gen. 10.8) and a robustus venator coram Domino (a mighty hunter before God Gen. 10.9). Moreover, that Nimrod was truly a model for the figure of the hunter is witnessed by the popular proverb Quasi Nemrod robustus venator coram Domino. As is known, his kingdom is remembered as the proud city responsible for scattering the peoples and dispersing the common language that the whole earth had before the construction of the Tower. Dante encounters Nimrod in Inf. 31, in an intermediate place between the tenth and last bolgia and the frozen lake of Cocytus. In the last bolgia, impersonators, alchemists, counterfeiters, and false witnesses are punished, while in the lake the punished sinners are traitors. In a way, all these sinners have a relation to the truth or
Einaudi, 1970. 343.

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falsehood of language, as does of course the poet, who introduces these categories in the lines beginning the canto, when he asks for the Muses help so that il dir dal fatto non sia diverso.303 This diversion of the word from fact will be Dantes object of reflection in Canto 32, when, nel loco onde parlare duro (14), he has to describe the Cocytus and the places that decline to the tristo buco (2). In this place, six giants are imprisoned. All of them, except Nimrod, participated in the pagan gigantomachy. The canto begins with a description of Virgils reproach of the pilgrim. The beginning is emblematic: Una medesma lingua pria mi morse... Here, the poet plays with two fields of signification related to the images of Babel and Eden. Indeed, the expression una medesma lingua is the translation of the Latin una eademque loquela, used in Dve I.vii.6 to identify the Babelic dispersal and confusion in contrast to the Adamic language. We do not know if Dante at the moment in which he was writing the Inferno (1307-13??) was already persuaded that Adams language was dead before the Babelic project, to which Par. 26.125 refers with the hapax legomenon of lovra inconsummabile. Yet, the significance of the intertext between Inf. 31 and Dve I.vii.6 is that Dante uses the expression una medesma lingua as an ironic signal that foreshadows the figure of Nimrod, which the reader will encounter just after a few verses in the canto. The expression one and selfsame tongue which evokes Adams speech is now incorporated by Virgil in the moment of his reproach to the pilgrim, in which the metonymic relationship between tongue and the typical dental action of the bite is particularly revealing. The image of the biting tongue echoes the medieval rhetorical topos of giving
303

Inf. 32.12.

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speech teeth against the absurd and ridiculous. 304 In this respect, we should also recall the bite of Love in Adams canto (Par. 26), Ma di ancor se tu senti altre corde tirarti verso lui, s che tu suone con quanti denti questo amor ti morde.305 The metonymy embedded in the image of the tongue-bite of Inf. 31.1 enacts a set of reversals played through the articulation of polysemic signs whose regular sense is ironically reconfigured. Indeed, by making the tongue bite, Dante enacts a replacement of what lies physiologically ahead (the teeth) with what lies behind (the tongue). This replacement alludes to a counterpoint between the revitalizing bite of the allegorically Adamic tongue of Virgil and the mortal bite of the teeth, 306 whose figural referent is not only the snake, but also Ugolino in Inf. 32-33. In substituting the violent teeth with the Adamic tongue, Dante also transforms the mortal, bestial bite into a moral pedagogical moment enacted through the leader and master Virgil. References to Genesis are present not only in the figurative language the poet uses at the beginning of the canto, but also in the effects in the piglrims spirit after Virgils reproach. Dante is shamed before Virgil for his wickedness and errors, as Adam and Eve were before God after eating the prohibited apple. In this regard, one can also recall Dve I.vii, in which sin (now, referring to Nimrods pride) is described as producing redness (rubor) on the face: Dispudet, heu, nunc humani generis ignominiam renovare! Sed quia preterite non
304

If you wish to rise up in full strength against the ridiculous, assail them in this form of speech: offer praise, but in a facetious manner; reprove, but with wit and grace; have recourse to gestures, but let these be consistently fitting. Give your speech teeth; attack with biting force but let your manner rather than your lips devour the absurd. Geoffrey of Vinsauf. Poetria nova. Trans. Margaret F. Nims. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1967. 31. (III.435). 305 Par. 26.51. 306 It is to recall the acoustic similarity between morso (bite) and mors (death).

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possumus quin transeamus per illam, quanquam rubor ad ora consurgat animusque refugiat, percurremus. 307 In addition, Saint Peter will also refer to similar shameful redness in the Canto following Adams (n chio fossi figura di sigillo / a privilegi venduti e mendaci, / ondio sovente arrosso e disfavillo).308 Soon after Virgils reproach, Dantes uncertainty shifts from moral to epistemological, when looking at the giants he describes them as alte torri (Inf. 31.20). This image evokes the medieval imagery of the city, in which towers were possessed by and representative of powerful families ruling the city.309 Illuminations of Purg. 12 resemble the metaphoric image of the giants as towers, where the proud people (superbi) are punished. Among these superbi, Dante vedea Nembrt a pi del gran lavoro / quasi smarrito, e riguardar le genti / che n Sennar con lui superbi foro (34-36). At the end of the canto, Dante again uses the metaphor of the tower, when he makes an analogy between the giant Antaeus and the Tower of the Garisenda in Bologna. After Virgils brief talk addressed to Antaeus, the giant bends toward Dante and Virgil in order to pick them up and bring them to the far shore of the
307

Dve. I.vii.1. Emphases mine. The heu in the passage directly connects the shame for Babel to the shame following original sin (Nam sicut post prevaricationem humani generis quilibet exordium sue locutionis incitpit ab heu). Dve I.vi.4. 308 Par. 27.52-54. One could also make a parallel between the textual proximity of Par. 26 and Par. 27 and the proximity between Dantes discussions on Adam and Nimrod respectively in Dve I.vi and I.vii. 309 See Albert R. Ascoli. Cum neminem ante nos: Historicity and Authority in the De vulgari eloquentia. Annali ditalianistica 8 (1990): 186-231, republished in Dante and the Making of the Modern Author. Cambrdige: Cambridge UP, 2008; Dante. Inferno. Ed. Durling and Martinez. Note to Inf. 31.136; Dante Alighieri. Rime giovanili e della Vita Nuova. Ed. Teodolinda Barolini and notes by Manuele Gragnolati. Milano: BUR, 2009. 15. From the political implications of the symbol of the Tower, as Barolini suggested (see p. 160), several linguistic elements from the early sonnet No me poriano zamai far ammenda where Dante refers to the Bolognese towers, with explicit reference to the Garisenda are recuperated in Inf. 27 and Purg. 20, two cantos particularly critical against Boniface VIII and his politics. On the relationship between politics and the towers, see also Edward Coleman. Cities and Communes. In Italy in the Central Middle Ages. Ed. David Abulafia. Oxford-New York: Oxford UP, 2004. 48.

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Cocytus.310 In the metaphor of the tower used to depict the giants, the allusion to Babel is quite evident. Actually, the entire canto is composed around allusions to the story of Babel in Genesis. By generating plurilingualism, the divine punishment of the Tower also generated a universal inability to understand the other. For the first time in the Biblical narrative, the other becomes an unintelligible monolingual Other, through the myth of Babel. 311 From a theoretical viewpoint, Babel synthesizes two possibilities of linguistic unintelligibility. On the one hand, language is not understandable because the speaker uses an idiom unknown to the listener (for instance, when speaker and listener belong to different linguistic communities), and, on the other hand, because the language used is inherently illogical. In other words, the story of Babel embeds two linguistic thresholds: first, the co-existence of different communities of language; and, second, the use of an
310

The destruction of a tower had a special meaning in the Middle Ages, especially for a Florentine intellectual involved in the politics of the city such as Dante. In fact, among the memories concerning the various struggles between ghibellines and guelfs, the 1248 destruction of the tower of the Guardamorto in Florence was of particular significance. At that time, the leading family of the Ghibellines was the Uberti, the family of Farinata, who is punished in Inf. 10. According to Vasari the method of throwing down high towers was invented by the architect Niccola Pisano exactly in the occasion of the destruction of the Guardamorto Tower. The demolition of the Tower had a particular significance for the Guelfs which included the Cavalcanti family , as it is witnessed by Villanis Chronicle. The Ghibellines, who now remained masters of Florence set to work to refashion the city after their own manner, razing to the ground thirty-six strongholds of the Guelfs, both palaces and great towers, among them being the noble residence of the Tosinghi in the old Market Place, known as the Palace, which was ninety cubits high, built with marble columns, and had a tower above of a hundred and thirty cubits. And still greater wickedness were the Ghibellines guilty of; for inasmuch as the Guelfs used to come together often to the Church of San Giovanni, and all the good people went there every Sunday morning, and were married there, when the Ghibellines came to destroy the towers of the Guelfs, among the rest was a very tall and beautiful one, which stood upon the Piazza of San Giovanni, at the entrance of the Corso degli Adimari, and it was called the Torre del Guardamorto, because anciently all the good folk who died were buried in San Giovanni, and the foot of this tower the Ghibellines caused to be cut away, and props to be inserted in such wise that when fire was set to the props, the tower might fall upon the Church of San Giovanni. And this was done; but [] when the tower, which was a hundred and twenty cubits high, began to fall, it appeared clearly that it would miss the church See Toynbee. Dante Alighieri: His Life and Works. 11-12. The passage is from Villani, Cronica VI.33. The tradition, to which Villani also believed, attributed this event to a miracle. 311 In a contemporary theoretical perspective, the other as monolingual has been discussed by Jacques Derrida in Il monolinguismo dellaltro o la protesi dorigine. Milano: Raffaello Cortina Editore, 2004.

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arbitrary, individualized, non-shared language. In Dantes imagination of Babel both limits are discussed. We find the first limit in particular in Dve I.vii.7, in which Dante argues that the divine punishment of Babel caused the formation of many languages and communities. The second type of linguistic limit is expressed in Inf. 31.67-81, in which Dante depicts Nimrod as a fiera bocca that cries incomprehensible sentences. Indeed, Nimrods figure is reduced to a foolish and confused soul who can only play a hunting horn to satisfy his rage and passions. As Virgil says to Dante, ... Elli stessi saccusa: questi Nembrotto per lo cui mal coto pur un linguaggio nel mondo non susa. Lascinlo stare e non parliamo a vto; ch cos a lui ciascun linguaggio come l suo ad altrui, cha nullo noto. The expression cha nullo noto at the end of these verses can bear the two interrelated senses of is known to nobody or is noted to nothing. The first sense arguably, the most intuitive one allows considering Nimrods language as unintelligible to other people because it is not shared by them. Since language, for Dante, presupposes exchange and commonality with others,312 the idiom spoken by one single person is the zero-degree form of language. 313 This seems to be a thematic continuity between De vulgari eloquentia and Inf. 31. Indeed, according to Dve I.xix.3, the lowest form of vernacular idiom is quod unius solius familiae proprium est. According to Mengaldo, the phrase quod unius solius familiae proprium est va naturalmente intesa alla lettera (il volgare che proprio di una sola famiglia), e non
312 313

See Dve I.ii. With zero-degree form of language I refer to the lowest capacity or form of language, to which Dante

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nella maniera del tutto forzata e improbabile che suggerisce il Marigo.314 Differently from modern translations of Dantes treatise, which follow Mengaldos view, I suggest that what Dante is addressing with the phrase unius solius familiae is not the language of one single family, but the idiom of a family composed of one single person.315 According to Dve I.xix.3, Dante plans to devote the fouth and final book of his treatise to the vernacular idiom proper to unius solius familiae. As it is known, Dante never wrote this book. Yet, one can hypothesize that this idiom is a zero-degree form of language of which an ideal type of speaker might be Nimrod in the Comedy. By considering the second sense of chha nullo noto, a different interpretation of the passage is also possible. This second sense points to an onto-linguistic limit, which does not concern the relationship between language and community, but that between language and being. In these verses, what is at stake in the figure of Nimrod is a type of language that does not refer to anything different from language itself. Indeed, according to Dante, Nimrod stessi saccusa a verse that allows us to see Nimrod as a figure of linguistic self-referentiality. Within Nimrods self-referentiality lies the death of the community, since language becomes a private performance in which the signifying game does not refer to anything but itself. As Virgil says to Dante: Lascinlo stare e non parliamo a vto. To talk to and about Nimrod means to talk in vain. His language is empty because for him other languages are empty in the same way his own language is meaningless for
also points in Dve I.xix.3. Pier Vincenzo Mengaldo. De vulgari eloquentia. In Umberto Bosco, ed. Enciclopedia Dantesca. Vol. 2. Roma: Treccani, 1970. 403-404. 315 The expression unius solius familiae has been translated as of one single family. Actually, this translation seems at odds with regard to the grammar of the sentence. Since familie is feminine, the expression of one single family should have been une sole familie.
314

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other people, cha nullo noto. Thus, Nimrods language is a multiplicity of signs expressing nothing, because they do not interrelate with Being/beings. This onto-linguistic limit is antipathetic to Dantes own poetic theology. Nimrods language can, in fact, be counter-posed to Gods will, which is to provide humans with meaningful signs an idea expressed, for instance, in Purg. 6.93, Ahi gente che dovresti essere devota se bene intendi ci che Dio ti nota. Moreover, it is at odds with Dantes own poetics, according to which, Dante is ... un che, quando Amor mi spira, noto, e a quel modo che ditta dentro vo significando.316 Both Gods and Dantes notare an activity also implied in the significar of Par. 1.70 and vo significando in Purg. 24.54 are diametrically opposed to the expression cha nullo noto which refers to the zero-degree form of language spoken by Nimrod. Nimrods cry Raphl ma amcche zab alm (Inf. 31. 67) is the only example of Nimrods idiom that Dante gives us. Several attempts have been proposed in order to explain the sense of this sentence.317 Among them, Peter Dronke claims that this sentence
316 317

Purg. 25.52-54. Among the diverse interpretations one can recall the ones by Guerri, Lemay, Nohrnberg, and Barnski. According to Guerri, the sentence Raphl mi amch zab alm traces out the biblical Raphaim man Amalech Zabulon alma, and its meaning would be Giganti, che! Gente che rasenta labitacolo segreto della bellezza. In other words, I giganti ai quali Nembrotte grida allerta, son quelle tali torracce che gli fanno compagnia,... ; la gente che comparisce... Dante col suo Virgilio; labitacolo il pozzo di Cocito, dove Lucifero, langelo bello, non impera, ma regge... See Domenico Guerri. Il nome di Dio nella lingua di Adamo secondo il XXVI del Paradiso e il verso di Nembrotto nel XXXI dellInferno. Giornale storico della letteratura italiana 54 (1909): 65-76, in particular 70 and 74-75. Richard Lemay has seen the figure of Nimrod in Inf. 31 as related to the mythical author of the Liber Nimroth and has argued that the sentence would mean Cet abme et moi-mme sommes devenus stupides par la science. See Richard Lemay. Le Nemrod de lEnfer de Dante et le Liber Nemroth. Studi danteschi 40 (1963): 57-128, in particular 83. For a different explanation, see also James Nohrnberg. The Analogy of The Faerie Queene. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1976. 274 note 470. According to Nohrnberg, Raphl my amch zab alm, which is rimed with salmi, is a distorted version of Ps. 22:1, as it appears in Matt.

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can be rooted in the tradition of invented languages, which were widely used for comic effect in the Church plays during Twelfth Night and Easter.318 Massimo Mandolini Pesaresi emphasizes that Nimrods cry is related to Dantes definition of power. Dantes link between language and power goes beyond Augustines statement on language as the instrument, par excellence, of social and political power (De civitate Dei XVI.4),319 because for Dante linguistic power is an effect of the division of labor during the construction of the Tower, as pointed out in Dve I.vii.7. For Dante, people were divided into groups according to the distribution of labor and, after the punishment, the more skill required for the type of work, the more rudimentary and barbaric the language they now spoke (et quanto excellentius excerbant, tanto rudius nunc barbariusque locuntur). Since Nimrod was the master and architect of the tower, his language was the most barbaric. In my view, Dante appears to be aware of Aristotles view of knowledge as it relates to labor division a view expressed in Metaphysics A.I.981b.1-7 when he claimed that the master craftsmen in every profession are more estimable and know more and are wiser than the artisans []
27:46, Eli, Eli, lamma sabatchthani: Nimrod is praying to Raphl, or giant-god. In other words, we almost hear the forsaken cry from the Cross here, as Dante himself confirms. One can also show that a parody of the same Psalmic cry has been put into the mouth of the unintelligible Nimrod. See Inferno. In Michael Seidel and Edward Mendelson, eds. Homer to Brecht. New Haven: Yale UP, 1977. 99; See also Inferno XVIII: Introduction to Malebolge. In Allen Mandelbaum, Anthony Oldcorn, and Charles Ross, eds. Lectura Dantis: Inferno. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: U of California P, 1998. 238-61, in particular 253-54. Zygmunt Baranski has also suggested Saba, Sabaeos e samech quail fonti per amcche zab, preferendole a quelle avanzate da Guerri. ... quale ulteriore prova vorrei far notare che Dante usa la parola almi nel Paradiso per riferirsi specificamente alla Pentecoste, lanti-figura per eccellenza di Babele... See Zygmunt Barnski. La linguistica scritturale di Dante. In Sole nuovo, luce nuova: Saggi sul rinnovamento culturale in Dante. Torino: Scriptorium, 1996. 123-124. For a general discussion of Nimrods sentence, see Ettore Caccia. Raphl ma amcche zab almi. In Umberto Bosco. Ed. Enciclopedia dantesca. Vol. 4. Roma: Treccani, 1973. 851-2. 318 Peter Dronke. Dante and Medieval Latin Traditions. Cambridge-New York: Cambridge UP, 1986. 319 Massimo Mandolini Pesaresi. Canto XXXI. The Giants: Majesty and Terror. In Allen Mandelbaum, Anthony Oldcorn, and Charles Ross, ed. Lectura Dantis: Inferno. Berkeley-Los Angeles: U of California P, 1998. 410.

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The master craftsmen are superior in wisdom.320 Therefore, Nimrod, being the most expert among the workers who build the Tower, can only cry meaninglessly after divine punishment. As Durling also observes, the structure entailed in Dantes punishment of Nimrod expresses greater wickedness, greater social power, and more barbarous language at the top, more community and nobler language toward the bottom. 321 In doing so, Dante overturns the power relationships between master-servant, as when Dve I.xvii implies that the illustrious vernacular is able to elevate the servant over the noble people. Dante structures his discourse on Babel through a system of counterbalances. This system is grounded in Aristotles conception of proportional justice, according to which the just is the proportionate, and the unjust is that which violates proportion.322 If justice can be established through a mathematical and geometric direct proportion, in following this reasoning, Dante poses an inverse proportionality as the basis of the punishment of injustice. For this reason, Nimrod cannot speak an understandable language, but, in order to express his anger and passions, instead of ideas and concepts, he can only play his hunting horn of war. As Virgil says to Nimrod ... Anima sciocca, Tienti col corno, e con quell ti disfoga Quand ira o altra passion ti tocca!...323
320

Aristotle. Metaphysics I.i.11-2. Trans. Hugh Tredennick. Cambride, MA: Harvard UP; London: Heinemann, 1977. 321 Robert Durling. The Audience(s) of the De vulgari eloquentia and the Petrose. Dante Studies 110 (1992): 31. 322 Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics V.iii.14. Trans. H. Rackham. Cambride, MA: Harvard UP; London: Heinemann, 1982. As witnessed in Conv. III.i.7, Dante is aware of the importance of the notion of proportion in Aristostles Ethics, when he claims that Onde da sapere che, s come dice lo Filosofo nel nono de lEtica, ne lamistade de le persone dissimili di stato conviene, a conservazione di quella, una proporzione essere intra loro che la dissimilitudine a similitudine quasi reduca. S com intra lo signore e lo servo... 323 Inf. 31.70-72. Foolish soul, be content with your horn, give vent with that, when anger or some other passion touches you!

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Thus, we could further argue that Dante, through Virgils words, wants to debase the figure of Nimrod by considering him as a hunter/warrior who can only express his passions and anger.

2. The Hunter, the Panther, and the Sweet Glory of Poetry

Dantes characterization of Nimrod is particularly interesting for us because Dante provides a complex image of this figure as a giant, high tower, horn player, and speaker of an unintelligible and confused language. According to Mandolini Pesaresi, among the giants of Inf. 31, Nimrod stands out as a powerful and original artistic invention. In fact, while Ephialtes is a rather plain citation from Virgil (Aeneid VI, 577-584) and Ovid (Metamorphoses VI, 151-155), Dantes Nimrod is different from the strong hunter of the Vulgate.324 The depiction of Nimrod as a giant is not found in the Old Testament. Dante based the idea that Nimrod was a giant adversary of God on Augustines De Civitate Dei (16.35). By paraphrasing and explaining the events narrated in Genesis 9-11, through the Old Latin translation of the Greek Septuagint version,325 Augustine originates the idea that Nimrod was a giant. Dante accepts this tradition both in the Comedy (see, for instance, Purg. 12.34-36) and in Dve I.vii.4-8. In a brief and intriguing essay entitled La caccia della lingua, Giorgio Agamben has argued that God punished Nimrod because his plan had to do with an artificial improvement of the one human language that was to grant reason unlimited power. Dante
324 325

Massimo Mandolini Pesaresi. Canto XXXI. The Giants: Majesty and Terror. 409. See Dante. Inferno. Eds. R. M. Durling and R. L. Martinez. 493 note to vv. 67-81.

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at least suggests this much when, in characterizing the perfidy of the giants, he speaks of an instrument of the mind (argomento della mente) (Inferno, XXXI, 55).326 Consequently, Agamben asks, Is it mere chance that in De vulgari eloquentia Dante also constantly presents his own search for the illustrious vernacular in terms of a hunt (we are hunting down language [I, XI, 1] what we are hunting for [I, XV, 8]; our hunting arms [I, XVI, 2]) and that language is thus assimilated to a ferocious beast, a panther? At the origins of the Italian literary tradition, the search for an illustrious poetic language is placed under the disturbing sign of Nemrod and his titanic hunt, almost as if to signify the mortal risk implicit in every search for language that seeks in some way to restore its originary splendor.327 As this passage suggests, by embodying the same metaphor of the hunter, Dante is directly confronting Nimrod, his senseless language, and his proud project. By engaging the hunting metaphor, Dante was not only confronting the myth of Babel but also the exegetic tradition that viewed the archetype of the hunter as a negative figure.328 Indeed, while Augustine considers the hunter as an anti-divine figure a deceiver, oppressor, and destroyer of the animals of the earth Dante does not oppose or reject the hunting metaphor. He rather elaborates a different way to look at it by embodying the figure of the hunter in his search for an illustrious vernacular. In doing so, Dante engages another view of the hunter, arguably, that of the hunter as a figura Christi, as Mercuri pointed out, citing a passage from Rabano Mauros De Universo, Venator
326

Emphasis mine. The term improvement in the original was perfezionamento (perfecting). Se la punizione di Babele stata la confusione delle lingue, probabile che la caccia di Nemrod avesse a che fare con un perfezionamento artificiale dellunica lingua degli uomini, che doveva schiudere alla ragione un potere senza limiti. Giorgio Agamben. La caccia della lingua. In Categorie Italiane. Trans. Daniel Hellen-Roazen. The End of the Poem: Studies in Poetics. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1999. 140. For the hermeneutic trend that relates Dante to the search for a perfect language see also the previous chapter. 327 Ibid. 141. 328 Nemrod est sovent dcrit comme le type de lhominum oppressor, le prelatus malus qui spolie le pauvre people confi ses soins. See Lemay. Le Nemrod de lEnfer de Dante. 88.

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Christus est [] venatores apostoli vel caeteri praedicatores.329 Yet, in engaging the hunting metaphor Dante was certainly exposing himself to a risky position, since the metaphor of the venator was widely employed to refer to heresy and fraud. 330 The hunting metaphor is evident not only in the De vulgari eloquentia but also in the enigmatic figure of the veltro introduced by Virgil in Inf. 1.100-2. At the beginning of his journey, lost in the selva oscura, Dante encounters three beasts, a lonza, a lion, and a she-wolf. Symbolizing cupidity, this last beast molti son li animali a cui sammoglia / e pi saranno ancora, infin che l veltro / verr, che la far morir con doglia. The veltro is literally a hunting dog, which Dante also mentions in his early sonnet Sonar brachetti and in Conv. I.xii.8, in which he provides a characterization of the bracco and the veltro for their bene odorare and ben correre important characterizations for the occurrence of the term in Inf. 13.126: di rietro a loro era la selva piena / di nere cagne, bramose e correnti / come veltri chuscisser di catena. Dante uses both positive and negative connotations of the figure of the veltro. The veltro belongs to a semiotic universe Dante had rejected in his early lyric poem Sonar brachetti, but which he later recuperates and re-evaluates in the first canto of the Comedy. In doing so, Dante overcomes the previous separation of the spheres of the hunt and that of the stilnovo conception of noble love, 331 now re-conceived as two
329 330

See Roberto Mercuri. Genesi della tradizione letteraria italiana in Dante, Petrarca e Boccaccio. 296. Ibid. See also Roberto Mercuri. La semantica di Gerione. 331 According to Gianfranco Contini, in Sonar brachetti Dante si fa rivolgere, come da un folletto, da un pensamento (ossia preoccupazione) amoroso di rimprovero, o diremo il gabbo, di sostituire le soddisfazioni borghesi della caccia al dovere cortese del joi damor. Gianfranco Contini. Introduzione alle Rime di Dante. Republished in Varianti e altra linguistica. 326. Continis use of a modern oppositional imagination between bourgeois and courtly values seems to be problematic. In fact, the hunt was the sport of noble courtly people needless to support this idea by referring to Frederick IIs treatise on De arte venandi. As Teodolinda Barolini has remarked, more correctly in my view, Dantes blame for his juvenile passion for hunting is tied to a reconsideration of the two gender-biased universes of the male-centered realm of the hunt and the female-directed realm of love. See Teodolinda

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complementary and interdependent realms in the all-encompassing universe of the Comedy. Numerous interpretations have been offered for the meaning and identity of the veltro.332 What I find significant in Dantes use of the figure is the function it serves in the narrative of the poem. In Inf. 1, the veltro appears to stand for a Messianic figure who, as is said at verses 104-105, will neither nurture land nor precious metals, but wisdom, love, and virtue. Dantes use of this icon both reflects and departs from diverse biblical, literary, and cultural topoi concerning dogs. For instance, we can, on one side, contrast the veltro with the greedy beasts described in Isaiah 56.11 or Boethiuss Cons. Phil. I.4,333 or, on the other, parallel it with the dog as a divine weapon in Jeremiah 15.3334 or the very useful and human-friendly animal in medieval romances. 335 Furthermore, we can make a parallel between the veltro and the iconography of Saint Dominic and the Dominicans an iconography that often diplays representations of
Barolinis comment to the sonnet in Dante Alighieri. Rime giovanili e della Vita Nuova. Milano: BUR, 2009. 168-9. 332 From this perspective then, Dante betrays his early poetic experience of the rustic-comic Rime into the more elevated poetry of the Comedy. For the veltro, see Charles T. Davis. Veltro. In Umberto Bosco. Enciclopedia Dantesca. Vol. 5. Roma: Treccani, 1976. 908-912. See also Giorgio Barberi Squarotti. Il veltro e lumile Italia. In Francesco Spera, ed. Novella Fronda: Studi Danteschi. Napoli: DAuria, 2008. 11-21. 333 Jer. 56.11: et canes impudentissimi, nescierunt saturitatem; ipsi pastores ignoraverunt intelligentiam; omnes in viam suam declinaverunt; unusquisque ad avaritiam suam, a summo usque ad novissimum. English Trans.: they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter. Boethius Cons. Phil. I.4: Paulinum consularem virum, cuius opes Palatinae canes iam spe atque ambitione devorassent 334 et visitabo super eos quatuor species, dicit Dominus: gladium ad occisionem, et canes ad lacerandum, et volatilia caeli et bestias terrae ad devorandum et dissipandum. English Trans.: And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the Lord: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy. 335 As an instance one can recall the closing statement of chapter 8 in Berouls The Romance of Tristan: Dogs are very useful creatures! See Beroul. The Romance of Tristan. Trans. Alan S. Fredrick. New

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dogs. As the noun itself Domini-canes also implies, Dominicans were represented as the dogs (canes) of Christ (domini). This iconography relates to a legend, according to which St. Dominics mother, while pregnant, dreamed of giving birth to a dog holding a torch in its mouth through which he would set the world on fire.336 For this reason, a dog is often displayed at the Saints feet holding a torch in its mouth. That Dante might be aware of this legend is evident in Par. 12.67-70, in which the poet emphasizes the etymology of the Saints name. Poi che le sponsalizie fuor compiute la donna che per lui lassenso diede, vide nel sonno il mirabile frutto chuscir dovea di lui e delle rede. E perch fosse qual era il costrutto, quinci si mosse spirito a nomarlo del possessivo di cui era tutto. Domenico fu detto...337 Another pun is embedded in the name of the Ghibelline ruler of Verona, Cangrande della Scala, who hosted Dante during his exile and to whom Cacciaguida will also refer in Par. 17.70-72. Lo primo tuo refugio e l primo ostello sar la cortesia del gran Lombardo che n su la scala porta il santo uccello.338 In Inf. 1, the veltro is the expected redemptive figure that can chase away the three beasts and dispatch the she-wolf an allegory of avarice, and the source for all other vices, according to Saint Thomas and Dante himself (Conv. 4). With the introduction of the veltro in Inferno 1, in my view, Dante was
York: Penguin, 1970. 80-84. See Jacopo da Varagine. Legenda Aurea. Ed. Arrigo Levasti. Vol. 2. Firenze: Le Lettere, 2000. 65-79. 337 Par. 12.61-70. Emphases mine. 338 Par. 17.70-72.
336

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establishing a thematic continuity between the hunting metaphor as used in the Dve and as used in the Comedy. The hound stands for an expected figure that can help the hunter find the illustrious vernacular, i.e. the panther that by breathing out a sweet scent can gather all animals together. By considering the Greek etymology, in Etymologies XII.2.8-9, Isidore of Seville points out that the pan-ther is called this because it is a friend to all (pan) animals, and all animals befriend him. Moreover, as we know from Brunetto Latinis bestiary contained in the first book of the Trsor, Panthere est une petite beste tachiee de petiz cercles blans et noirs autresi come petiz iauz et est aims de touz animaus fors que dou dragon. Et sa nature est que tout mantenant que ele a sa viande prise, si entre en sa spelonque et se dort .iii. jors; lors se lieve et ovre sa boche. Et fleire si douz et si soef que toutes bestes qui sent[ent] lodor sen vont devant li; soulement le dragon se fiche es petuis de[sous] terre, por la paor quil en a, que il set bien que a morir li convient. 339 In addition to Brunettos bestiary, other bestiaries also point out that, with his sweet fragrance, the panther a symbol for Christ is able to attract all the animals except the dragon and gather them to follow him. The dragon allegory of Satan and the Anti-Christ340 cannot stand the panthers sweetness and thus flees to his underground cave where he lies in a motionless slumber as if dead. 341 The contrast between the panther and the dragon in the bestiaries is re-conceived in Dante as a dialectic between sweet scent and noxious air. Indeed, while the illustrious
339

Brunetto Latini. Trsor I.193.1. English Trans.: The panther is an animal with little black and white rings, like little eyes, and it is loved by all animals except the dragon. Its nature is such that as soon as it has caught food, it goes into its cave and sleeps for three days. Then it gets up and opens its mouth, and its breath is so sweet and pleasant that all animals which smell it go towards it, except the dragon, which, because of the smell, hides in openings underground out of fear, for it knows well that it will die. 340 See (pseudo) Rabano Mauro. Allegorie della scrittura. Introduction and translation Pier Giorgio di Domenico. Citt del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2002. 105-6. 341 Debra Hassig. Medieval Bestiaries. Text, Image, Ideology. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995. 156.

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vernacular in Dve is presented as a sweet-smelling panther, in the epistles Dante refers to different noxious animals as the hydra pestifera and pestilens animal able to ruin city governments due to its multiple heads, 342 or the vipera, the languida pecus, and the vulpecula fetoris hidden in a shelter and safe from the attacks of the hunters. 343 The noxious air is a symbol of the corruption expanding through the people that Dante represents as a sheep. Being unaware of the wicked power of the noxious promises produced by rulers, the sheep can easily be infected.344 In a similar light, Dante, through Saint Peters invective in Par. 27.55-57, will condemn the rulers who, though masked as shepherds, behave as wolves. 345 These rulers usurp the Church and transform Peters cemetery into a sewer of blood and stink. Quelli chusurpa il luogo mio, il luogo mio, il luogo mio, che vaca nella presenza del Figliuol di Dio, fattha del cimitero mio cloaca del sangue e della puzza; onde l perverso che cadde di qua su, l pi si placa.346 My reading at this point differs from that of Roberto Mercuri. While for Mercuri the panther is the same animal as the dangerous lonza at the beginning of the Comedy, which Dante also recalls in the canto of Gerione (Inf. 16.106-109), the panther, in my view, is the animal Dante finally finds in writing the Comedy. By contending that the panther of the Dve and the lonza of the Comedy are essentially the same animal Mercuri seems to presume that there is a sharp discontinuity between the two works, since the
342 343

See Epistle 7.20. Epistle 7.23-26. 344 Epistle 7.26. 345 Par. 27.55-57: In vesta di pastor lupi rapaci / s veggion di qua su per tutti i paschi / o difesa di Dio, perch pur giaci? See also Matt. 7.15: Attendite a falsis prophetis, qui veniunt ad vos in vestimentis ovium, intrinsecus autem sunt lupi rapaces. Dante uses similar figurative language from shepherdy in the Eclogues in order to explain why he chose to write in the vernacular rather than in Latin.

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panther is positively viewed in the Dve, and the lonza viewed negatively in the Comedy.347 I suggest on the contrary that the two works are continuous, and the animals are thus quite distinct, indeed opposed to one another. If we arrange the elements found so far, we have: Dante is a hunter of a panther, and he is waiting for a hound that can defeat the she-wolf. The panther produces and emits with his roar a sweet and irresistible fragrance that attracts all the animals except the dragon. If the avid she-wolf nurtured by luxury and wealth can couple with to numerous animals, the panther, with its scent, can attract and gather all the animals to follow it.The constellation of metaphoric images provided by Dante seems to be coherent. Given all this, in what sense can we interpret the mission of the veltro sub specie linguae? A linguistic trace embedded in Dantes uses of the verb cacciare may help us to see the implicit intersections between Dantes ethical-political view of the veltro and his linguistic-poetic project. Indeed, the way Dante uses the verb cacciare in both contexts seems to be symptomatic. Since the verb cacciare can mean both to hunt and to chase
346 347

Par. 27.22-27. The ambivalent sense, both positive and negative, of the symbol of the panther has been indicated by Aldo Vallone. Studi su Dante medievale. Firenze: Olschki, 1965. 55. Si pensi alla panthera che in quanto bestia in generale rappresenta quilibet a peccato conversus e in particolare come pardus quilibet vitiorum varietate plenus. Pu per significare il presbyter, e i sette colori di quella le septem vestes et septem virtutes di questo. Si passa cos da unanalogia semplice ad un agglomerato analogico per giungere poi ad associazioni prelogiche e immotivate. Vallone cites Rabano Mauro. Allegorie sulla scrittura. CXII.875 and 1022. In this last passage, Rabano Mauro cites Isa. 11.6: Habitabit lupus cum agno, et pardus sum haedo accubabit; vitulus, et leo, et ovis, simul morabuntutr, et puer parvulus minabit eos. It is noteworthy that Dante seems to overturn the peaceful world of cohabitation among animals into a more painful one. In fact, Dantes dream is that the veltro would finally kill the she-wolf con doglia (Inf. 1.102). Actually, Dante overturns the imagination of coexistence among animals as an adulterous sign, when he claims that the she-wolf sammoglia to numerous animals.

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away, Dantes use of the verb in the second sense to refer both to the veltros mission348 and to his own poetry349 seems to provide evidence of a significant intertext. In these uses of caccer, we can perhaps find the core of his hunt for the illustrious vernacular: it is both a hunt for justice and a struggle against the vices as well as a hunt for the glory of language and a cultural struggle against early views of vernacular poetry. Traditionally, the veltro has been seen as a figura Christi and/or a figura Augusti. There is no doubt that it constitutes an allegorical icon for a Messiah (either an Emperor or a defender of the Church, or both). According to an exegetical tradition of the Psalms, the dog symbolizes a defender of the civitatem and the Ecclesiam gentium. In the Enciclopedia Dantesca, Charles T. Davis also recalls medieval artistic and literary representations nelle quali il cane simboleggia la fides e anche la sagacia, lalacrit e la fedelt dei difensori del gregge cristiano contro la voracit dei lupi, mentre il lupo simboleggia tanto la rapacit e lastuzia, quanto il demonio e i suoi accoliti, e anche Roma.350 Dantes expression locutio vulgarium gentium in Dve I.i.1 evokes the expression Ecclesia gentium as domina gentium he used at the very beginning of the letter to the Italian cardinals written around 1314. In this letter, Dante cites the passage from the Lamentations of Jeremiah I.1, Quomodo sola sedet civitas plena populo! Facta est quasi vidua domina gentium. 351 According to VN 30.1, Dante used the same passage to begin the letter to the princes of the world after the death of Beatrice:
348 349

Inf. 1.109. cos ha tolto luno allaltro Guido / la gloria della lingua; e forse nato / chi luno e laltro caccer del nido Purg. 11.97-98. 350 Charles T. Davis Veltro. In Umberto Bosco, ed. Enciclopedia dantesca. Vol. 5. Roma: Treccani, 1976. 908. 351 Epistle 11.1.

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Poi che fue partita da questo secolo, rimase tutta la sopradetta cittade quasi vedova dispogliata da ogni dignitade; onde io, ancora lagrimando in questa desolata cittade, scrissi a li principi de la terra alquanto de la sua condizione, pigliando quello cominciamento di Geremia profeta che dice Quomodo sedet sola civitas.352 That Dante conflated the two issues of civic politics and language is also witnessed by the proximity between the passage just quoted and the explanation of his intention to write in the vernacular an intention shared with his primo amico Guido Cavalcanti. Lo intendimento mio non fue dal principio di scrivere altro che per volgare; onde, con ci sia cosa che le parole che seguitano a quelle che sono allegate, siano tutte latine, sarebbe fuori del mio intendimento se le scrivessi. E simile intenzione so chebbe questo mio primo amico a cui io ci scrivo, cio chio li scrivessi solamente volgare. 353 In all these reverberations we could find at least one trace that allows us to connect the veltro with Dantes search for an illustrious vernacular. As I mentioned in the previous chapter, the term vulgare is rooted in that of vulgus, i.e. a multitude of persons who live here and there according to their individual wills. As Brunetto Latini pointed out in his Trsor, ci sono molte citt dove il governo della vita delluomo distrutto, e vivono in modo dissoluto, perch ognuno va dietro alla propria volont. As we have seen, the dog is a symbol for a Messianic figure needed to defend both the city and the Ecclesia gentium from dispersion. The killing of the she-wolf of avarice by the veltro would signify for Dante the gathering together of citizens within a civic government and the unification of the Ecclesia gentium: the two equal and distinct
352

VN 30.1. For the use of Lamentationes in this passage see Ronald Martinez. Mourning Beatrice: The Rhetoric of Threnody in the Vita nuova. MLN 113.1 (1998): 1-29. For other uses in the Comedy see also Martinez. Dante between Hope and Despair: The Tradition of the Lamentations in the Divine Comedy. Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 5.3 (2002): 45-76; and Dantes Jeremiads: The Burden of Florence. In Teodolinda Barolini and H. Wayne Storey, eds. Dante for the New Millennium. New York: Fordham UP, 2003. 301-319.

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institutional authorities of the world as Dante conceived it. We should also keep in mind that the veltro is a hunting dog, whose strength is that of ben correre. Developing traces implicit in the metaphor itself, one could also deduce that the ben correre makes the veltro particularly adapted to hunt a fast animal such as the panther, which, with its scent (in my view, a metaphor for the glory of language recalled in Purg. 11), can gather the dispersed vulgarium gentium. My general hypothesis is therefore that Dante saw in the illustrious vernacular language a gathering power, which (sub specie linguae) parallels the unifying power of the Emperor (sub specie politicae), and the Church (sub specie spiritualis) though from the historical perspective of the Dve neither the Emperor nor the Church had provided the unifying court, where such a vernacular could assume its proper place.

3. Returning to Eden: the Death of Language, Adams Joy, and the Fall of Babel
Dante links the stories of Adam and Babel both in De vulgari Eloquentia (in particular in I.xi.5) and in Par. 26, where in his final ascent to God he encounters Adam. This is surely a moment of extraordinary importance in both Dantes journey and poem, since it follows the triple examination that sentences the pilgrims ability to ascend to the Empirean. References to Eden abound in the cantos of Paradise. For instance, we find allusions when in Par. 12.70-72 Dante considers Saint Dominic as the agricola che Cristo elesse allorto suo per aiutarlo or Christ and God as an ortolano etterno (Par. 26.65) and the Roman Catholic Church as the orto cattolico, which is crossed by
353

VN 30.2-3.

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different rivers (Par. 12.103-4) an image that evokes the rivers of Eden, i.e. Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates.354 Images of the Edenic garden are expressed in Par. 26.6466, when during his last examination on charity, Dante talks about the right love and says Le fronde onde sinfronda tutto lorto dellortolano etterno, amio cotanto quanto da lui a lor di bene porto.355 In Par. 26, Dante after revealing his conception about the right love, which, according to him, should be guided by Christs teachings, the vernacular version of the Psalm chant Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus surrounds the heaven indicating Dantes readiness to go further toward the vision of God. Yet, like unexpected lightning, a new flame materializes before the pilgrims eyes. This presence seems to break the narrative continuum of the canto and delay the pilgrims ascent to the Empirean. Answering Dantes question concerning the identity of this light, Beatrice says that those luminous rays covers lanima prima che [il suo fattor] la prima virt creasse mai.356 During Beatrices brief explanation, Dante raises himself up, Come la fronda che flette la cima nel transito del vento, e poi si leva per la propria virt che la sublima. 357 Adam in the Garden of Eden-Ecclesia makes Dante like one of the beloved fronde of the orto dellortolano etterno. The image of Dante as a fronda here
354

See Genesis 2.10-14. For the Eden as the Garden of God symbolizing the Church, see also Paradisus, giardino in Rabano Mauro. Allegorie della Scrittura. 282. Rabano Mauro recalls Genesis 2.8, Plantaverat autem Dominus Deus paradisum voluptatis a principio. 355 Par. 26.64-66. In the metaphor of God as the ortolano etterno Dante alludes to John 15.1: Ego sum vitis vera, et pater meus agricola est; and 20.15, Illa existimas quia hortolanus esset... See also Mengaldo, Linguistica e retorica di Dante, Pisa: Nistri-Lischi, 1978. 227. 356 Par. 26.83-84. 357 Par. 26.85-87.

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intertextually relates to Par. 15.88, in which Cacciaguida addresses the pilgrim with O fronda mia in che io compiacemmi. As Ronald Martinez suggested, Dantes use of the tree metaphor in this Cantos is an instance of a figurative language pointing to the pilgrims return to first principles, among which Cacciaguida, Adam, and the Creator are pivotal.358 Furthermore, we can also hypothesize that at this point the image of the fronda alludes to Genesis 2.5-8, which tells us that Adam was created to cultivate the ground and care for the trees.359 Dante does not talk about Adam as a laborer, but in Par. 23 he talks about the labor of the bird (Beatrice) that stays on the branch of a tree, waiting for the sunrise (image of Christ), in order to hunt (labor) the food for its nestlings. Come laugello, intra lamate fronde, posato al nido de suoi dolci nati la notte che le cose ci nasconde, che, per veder li aspetti disiati e per trovar lo cibo onde li pasca, in che gravi labor li sono aggrati, previene il tempo in sullaperta frasca, e con ardente affetto il sole aspetta, fiso guardando pur che lalba nasca...360 Arguably, the laborer mother-bird Beatrice embodies a motif from Adam (and Eve), the first laborer, parent, and nurturer of all creatures.361
358

See Ronald Martinez. Canto XV: The Tempered Soul in the Tempered Poem. Forthcoming in the California Lectura dantis: Paradiso, ed. Allen Mandelbaum and Anthony Oldcorn. 359 Et omne virgultum agri antequam oriretur in terra, omnemque herbam regionis priusquam germinaret: non enim pluerat Dominus Deus super terram, et homo non erat qui operaretur terram: sed fons ascendebat e terra, irrigans universam superficiem terrae. Formavit igitur Dominus Deus hominem de limo terrae, et inspiravit in faciem eius spiraculum vitae, et factus est homo in animam viventem. Colunga and Turrado. Biblia Vulgata. 5. 360 Italics mine. 361 Not distant from Dantes epoch, Christine de Pizan described Adam and Eve as the noblest human beings because of their labor. Adam and Eve, the two heads of the world, from whom all human life is descended, were labourers of the earth. The first head was Adam, the first father, about whom it is written in the second chapter of Genesis, God took the first man and put him in a paradise of pleasures, to work, cultivate and take care of it. And from this Scripture one can draw two arguments to prove the

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If so, the counterpoint with Nimrod here becomes quite significant. While Nimrod, as Augustine contended, was a hunter against God and a deceiver and oppressor of animals, Adam as well as the mother-bird Beatrice is the generator and curator of the living beings on the earth. Moreover, if we think of Adam and Nimrod as two types of a theology of language Adam as the first speaker and Nimrod the cause of the linguistic confusion we should take into account a significant difference in their social belonging and collocation in the social distribution of labor. As we have already seen, Dante argues that the punishment of Babel generated numerous languages on the basis of the division of labor. Indeed, Nimrod, the leading architect of the Tower, spoke an unintelligible language cha nullo noto. Given that, Dante in order to refer to his own intellectual labor uses metaphors from the mechanical arts (i.e. the arts of manual workers), the pilgrims return to Adam also embeds a reference to the interrelation between labor and linguistic divisions indicated in Dve. This at least Dante leads us to believe if we also keep in mind that, to refer to his own labor, he does not only employ the hunting metaphor but also a peasant one, when in Dve I.xviii.1 he refers to the paterfamilias as an agricola who plants and transplants trees, or when he uses terms such as the cribrum (sieve) for selecting the illustrious vernaculars from the inferior ones, or the fascio to indicate his grouping different branches of knowledge. 362 Now, is Dantes return to Adam expressed only in terms of figurative language? If
honesty of labour: the first is that God commanded it and made it first of all crafts; the second, that this craft was created during the state of innocence. Cary J. Nederman and Kate Langdon Forhan, ed. Medieval Political Theory. A Reader: the Quest for the Body Politic, 1100-1400. London-New York: Routledge, 1993. 245. 362 For the cribrum see Dve I.xii.1; for the fascio, Dve II.viii.1: Preparatis fustibus torquibusque ad fascem, nunc fasciandi tempus incumbit.

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we follow Singletons and Continis major contributions on the topic, the answer is certainly negative. Indeed, if Singleton has argued that Dantes journey is in a profound allegorical sense a return to Eden, Contini contended that Dantes encounter with Adam in Par. 26 was meant to justify Dantes own choice to write in the vernacular. Yet, Dantes return to Adam in Par. 26 has not been easy to understand for Dante scholars. This is in particular because in this Canto Dante appears to reverse his early positions on Adams language as stated in Dve. While in Dve I.vi.5, Dante claims that Adams language was still alive when the building of the Tower of Babel was planned, in Par. 26, Dante indicates that it was already dead. Given this evident palinode, a careful scrutiny of the question seems to be paramount. In order to do so, I will focus mainly on Mengaldos interpretation. But, it is helpful to first read Adams entire discourse in the Canto la lingua chio parlai fu tutta spenta innanzi che allovra inconsummabile fosse la gente di Nembrt attenta; ch nullo effetto mai razionabile, per lo piacere uman che rinovella seguendo il cielo, sempre fu durabile. Opera naturale chuom favella; ma cos o cos, natura lascia poi fare a voi secondo che vabbella. Prima chi scendessi allinfernale ambascia, I sappellava in terra il sommo bene onde vien la letizia che mi fascia; e EL si chiam poi: e ci convene, ch luso de mortali come fronda in ramo, che sen va e altra vene. 363 Following Continis lead, Mengaldo attempted to explain Dantes palinode concerning the historicity of Adams language by arguing that it was after discovering the
363

Par. 16.124-138.

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general principle that all languages change historically that Dante changed his mind in Par. 26.364 Although suggestive, this argument appears problematic. Indeed, Dante was conscious of the importance of the general principle of the historicity of languages already in the Dve, where he articulates the principle as well as asserting the historical continuity of Adams language with Nimrods.365 In my view, the shift or palinode observable between the Dve and the Comedy, that is, between a historical continuity joining Adamic and Nimrodic language in the Dve, and their historical discontinuity in Par. 26, is not dependent on a general theory of the historical mutability of languages. As I see it, with the intervention of Adam in Par. 26, Dante conflates two questions dealt with in the De vulgari eloquentia and, perhaps, tackles a third problem. The first concerns the identity of the original language Adam spoke to God, while the second concerns the historical mutability of languages. The third problem Dante faced can be expressed in the following way: if Adams language is also Nimrods, as claimed in the Dve, then this language could be in part responsible for producing Babelic confusion. And if Adams language is genetically related to Babel, Dante could not consider it the model of the language for which he hunts. In Par. 26, Adam, by emphasizing that his language was already extinct before Babel, liberated his language from being held accountable for Nimrods pride and Babelic confusion. In other words, by historicizing his language, Adam emphasizes the genetic discontinuity between his and Nimrods language. This discontinuity is echoed in
364

Pier Vincenzo Mengaldo. Linguistica e retorica di Dante. Pisa: Nistri-Lischi, 1978. See in particular pp. 239-246. 365 Dve I.vi.5.

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the opposed emotions these two figures manifest within the narrative of the poem. Nimrod embodies anger, but Adam expresses total joy. 366 Indeed in Par. 26 Adams light immediately attracts Dante and transfers to him a joyful sweetness that affects not only Dantes mind but also his body. Arguably, this relates to a joy of being together, which equals then the final Fall of Babel and the possibility of being cives et respirantes in pace367 beyond the exile of Babylon. Detached genetically from Nimrods linguistic lineage, Adams light and speech therefore points to a power of gathering, needed to overcome Babelic confusion and prepare the pilgrim for his inclusion in the community of the blessed.
366

We should also recall that, according to Dve I.iv, Adams first speech expressed joy in the name of Deus, whose meaning, for Dante, is joy. Rationabile est quod ante qui fuit inciperet a gaudio; et cum nullum gaudium sit extra Deum, sed totum in Deo, et ipse Deus totus sit gaudium, consequens est quod primus loquens primo et ante omnia dixisset Deus. 367 Here I am also referring to Dantes epistle to Henry VII: Ac quemadmodum, sacrosancta Ierusalem memores, exules in Babilonie gemiscimus, ita tunc cives et respirantes in pace, confusionis miserias in gaudio recolemus. Epistle 7.30. Emphasis mine.

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CHAPTER 5 DANTES DE-VULGARIZATION OF THE VULGARE: HEGEMONY, CAESARISM, AND POETRY OF PRAXIS

Questo sar luce nuova, sole nuovo, lo quale surger l dove lusato tramonter, e dar lume a coloro che sono in tenebre e in oscuritade, per lo usato sole che a loro non luce. Dante, Convivio, I, xiii, 12

lidentificazione di teoria e pratica un atto critico... Ecco perch il problema dellidentit di teoria e pratica si pone specialmente in certi momenti storici cos detti di transizione, cio di pi rapido movimento trasformativo. Gramsci. Quaderni del carcere

1. Firenze esercita unegemonia culturale: Cultural Hegemony from Gramsci to Dante

By dialogically reading Dante and Gramsci we earn a historical perspective that allows us to view Dantes conceptualization of an illustrious language as an anti-Babelic search for unity, which, for Gramsci, should be considered as a national-cultural political act. The ante-penultimate note of the Prison Notebooks, mostly overlooked by Gramsci scholars and dantisti, turns the entire questione della lingua to new challenging directions. As I have also shown in the first chapter, by addressing De vulgari eloquentia as an act of national-cultural politics Gramsci is both interpreting Dantes treatise and, indirectly, challenging a hermeneutic tradition that led to consider the treatise as principally a book on poetry and style. Gramscis attempt in Q 29, 7 to re-conceive Dantes treatise and the questione della lingua as a cultural-political act invites us to redirect our gaze on language to its historicity and constitutive ethical-political dimension.

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Gramscis final notebook wraps up a set of issues, studies, and researches he tackled during an extended period of gestation beginning with the years at the University of Torino (1911-1914) and extending to the composition of the Prison Notebooks (19291935). Passages such as the following, respectively from Q 1, 73 (1929-1930) and Q 3, 76 (1930) provide evidence that in the final Notebook Gramsci re-elaborates complex sets of early reflections: Fino al 500 Firenze esercita legemonia culturale, perch esercita unegemonia economica (papa Bonifacio VIII diceva che i fiorentini erano il quinto elemento della terra) e c uno sviluppo dal basso, dal popolo alle persone colte. Dopo la decadenza di Firenze, litaliano la lingua di una casta casta chiusa, senza contatto con una parlata storica.368 Il fiorire dei Comuni d sviluppo ai volgari e legemonia intellettuale di Firenze d una unit al volgare, cio crea un volgare illustre. Ma cos questo volgare illustre? il fiorentino elaborato dalla vecchia tradizione: il fiorentino di vocabolario e anche di fonetica, ma un latino di sintassi. Daltronde la vittoria del volgare sul latino non era facile: i dotti italiani, eccettuati i poeti e gli artisti in generale, scrivevano per lEuropa cristiana e non per lItalia, erano una concentrazione di intellettuali cosmopoliti e non nazionali. La caduta dei Comuni e lavvento del principato, la creazione di una casta di governo staccata dal popolo, cristallizza questo volgare, allo stesso modo che si era cristallizzato il latino letterario. Litaliano di nuovo una lingua scritta e non parlata, dei dotti e non della nazione. []369
368

Q 1, 73. Emphasis mine. Gramsci will re-write the passage in Q 23, 58 as follows: Fino al Cinquecento Firenze esercita unegemonia culturale, connessa alla sua egemonia commerciale e finanziaria (papa Bonifacio VIII diceva che i fiorentini erano il quinto elemento del mondo) e c uno sviluppo linguistico unitario dal basso, dal popolo alle persone colte, sviluppo rinforzato dai grandi scrittori fiorentini e toscani. Dopo la decadenza di Firenze, litaliano diventa sempre pi la lingua di una casta chiusa, senza contatto vivo con una parlata storica. Italics mine. I have highlighted the changes Gramsci made in rewriting the note. As the text witnesses, the term hegemony remains a key concept. As Franco Lo Piparo pointed out, Gramsci in these notes rephrases DOvidios texts concerning the history of the Italian language. See Franco Lo Piparo. Lingua, intellettuali, egemonia in Gramsci. 1289. 369 Q 3, 76. 354. Emphases mine. According to Lo Piparo, the type of illustrious vernacular with which Gramsci deals in these notes does not correspond to Dantes one. In my view, it is difficult to say whether Gramsci was thinking at Dantes notion of illustrious vernacular as expressed in the Dve or not. Two traces might help us to support that the type of vernacular idiom Dante configured is central to Gramscis reflection. First, Gramsci considered Dantes linguistic treatise at the end of the Prison Notebooks as a pivotal point of reference. Second, Gramscis positive judgments of Enrico Sicardis book, La lingua italiana in Dante, gives us a way to have a better understanding of what Gramsci meant

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These notes can help us to parallel the linguistic contests between Latin and the vernacular language with the political forms of government. As they make clear, for Gramsci, there is isomorphism between language and political and social organization.370 And, it is noteworthy that in the juxtaposition of vernacular with Latin and Commune with Principality, the concept of hegemony modified by the adjectives cultural and intellectual plays a central role. Gramscis counterpoint between the vernacular languages in the thirteenth century Communes and Latin in the fifteenth century Principalities will be re-articulated in the note 7 of Notebook 29 in which Gramsci refers to the innovative character of Dantes treatise. As Q29, 3 then wraps up, Ogni volta che affiora, in un modo o nellaltro, la quistione della lingua, significa che si sta imponendo una serie di altri problemi: la formazione e lallargamento della classe dirigente, la necessit di stabilire rapporti pi intimi e sicuri tra i gruppi dirigenti e la massa popolare-nazionale, cio di riorganizzare legemonia culturale.371 From this perspective, we might ask whether Dante, with his search for an illustrious vernacular language, was attempting to establish a cultural hegemony. This chapter aims at providing a tentative answer to this question by tackling a set of issues, which could allow us to rethink Dantes linguistic problem under the concept of
when he says that the illustrious Florentine idiom is il fiorentino di vocabolario e anche di fonetica, ma un latino di sintassi. As Sicardi highlights in his study, linguistic structures based on rhetorical devices as the ellipsis, while unusual in modern Italian language, were particularly common in ancient languages, and in particular in Latin. Most of Sicardis book demonstrates precisely the hermeneutic values of Dantes uses of devices as the ellipsis in the Comedy. As I have shown in the second chapter, Sicardis book is central for Gramscis critiques to Croce with regard to Inferno 10. Moreover, as suggested in the first chapter, Sicardis study might also be relevant for Gramscis general statement that both language and history are composed of elliptical parallels between past and present. 370 See also Lo Piparo. Lingua, intellettuali, egemonia in Gramsci. 252. 371 Q 29, 3. 2345-6.

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hegemony. Most debates in the humanities and social science today refer to Gramscis prison writings as the texts in which the notion of hegemony has been accounted for in the most extended way. Reading Gramscis complex body of writings closely, one finds that in diverse contexts the term hegemony is modified through different adjectives such as political,372 ethical-political and economic,373 commercial and financial, 374 social,375 civil,376 intellectual,377 political and cultural,378 cultural-political and intellectual-political,379 intellectual, moral, and political. 380 Therefore the noun hegemony not only refers to a stable theory of power relationship, but also constitutes a prism through which we can follow the various discourses explored by Gramscis writings in different textual contexts. The prismatic and hyper-textual nature of Gramscis work has led scholars to scrutinize how Gramsci used the concept of hegemony within his body of writings. 381 Scholars have worked out both theoretical approaches to the concept 382 and analyzed
372 373

Q 7, 83. Q 13, 18. 1591. 374 Q 23, 40. 2237. 375 Q 12, 1. 1519. 376 Q 13, 7. 1566. 377 Q 13, 18. 1590. 378 Q 6, 24. 915. 379 Q 13, 26. 1618. 380 Q 19, 24. 2011. For a discussion on Gramscis multiple ways to refer to the notion of hegemony, see also Alberto Burgio. Il nodo dellegemonia in Gramsci. Appunti sulla struttura plurale di un concetto. In Angelo dOrsi, ed. Egemonie. Napoli: Edizioni Dante & Descartes, 2008. 253-269. 381 Edward Said remarked in 1987. Il concetto di egemonia in Gramsci probabilmente il concetto pi complesso, che ha dato luogo ad interpretazioni le pi diverse e incerte. See Said. Gramsci e lunit di filosofia, politica, economia. In Giorgio Baratta and Andrea Catone, ed. Modern Times: Gramsci e la critica dellAmericanismo. Milano: Diffusioni, 1987. 354. 382 An incomplete bibliography might include: Perry Anderson. The Antinomies of Antonio Gramsci. New Left Review 100 (November 1976-January 1977): 5-78; Norberto Bobbio. Gramsci e la concezione della societ civile. In Pietro Rossi, ed. Gramsci e la cultura contemporanea. Vol. 1. Roma: Editori Riuniti-Istituto Gramsci, 1969. 75-100; Robert Bocock. Hegemony. London-New York:

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philologically the contexts in which the term appears.383 Moreover, Gramscis multifarious uses of the term hegemony moved scholars such as historian Perry Anderson to discuss the antinomies within Gramscis thought, which, in turn, stimulated the attentive philological scholarship of Gianni Francioni, who argued for a more attentive diachronic analysis of the ways Gramscis writing-practices evolved during the prison years.384 Furthermore, the plural structure385 of the notion of hegemony has been explored in its interrelations with such concepts as civil society, consent, the organic intellectual, ideology, super-structure and historic block, and it has been discussed as a sign of Gramscis Leninism (Togliatti), as an expression of a culturalist approach to politics (Bobbio), as a non-Marxist legacy Gramsci inherited from his studies in
Tavistock; Chichester: Ellis Horwood, 1986; Alberto Burgio. Gramsci storico: Una lettura dei Quaderni del carcere. Roma-Bari: Laterza, 2002; Angelo DOrsi, ed. Egemonie. Napoli: Dante&Descartes, 2008; Benedetto Fontana. Hegemony and Power: On the Relation between Gramsci and Machiavelli. Minneapolis-London: U of Minnesota P, 1993; Benedetto Fontana. The Democratic Philosopher: Rhetoric as Hegemony in Gramsci. Italian Culture 23 (2005): 97-123; Valentino Gerratana. Le forme dellegemonia. In Gramsci: Problemi di metodo. Roma: Editori Riuniti, 1997. 119-126; Peter Ives. Gramscis Politics of Language: Engaging the Bakhtin Circle and the Frankfurt School, Toronto: U of Toronto P, 2004; Peter Ives. Language and Hegemony in Gramsci. London-Ann Arbor: Pluto, 2004; Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics. London-New York: Verso, 1985; Leonardo Paggi. Gramsci e legemonia dallOrdine nuovo alla Quistione meridionale. In Biagio De Giovanni, Valentino Gerratana, Leonardo Paggi. Egemonia, Stato, partito in Gramsci. Roma: Editori Riuniti, 1977. 17-36; Palmiro Togliatti. Il leninismo nel pensiero e nellazione di A. Gramsci. Scritti su Gramsci. Ed. Guido Liguori. Roma: Ediori Riuniti, 2001; Giuseppe Vacca. Egemonia e politica-potenza. La filosofia della praxis come programma. Gramsci e Togliatti. Roma: Editori Riuniti, 1991; Raymond Williams. Hegemony. Keywords. New York: Oxford UP, 1976. 117-118. 383 See Franco Lo Piparo. Lingua, intellettuali, egemonia in Gramsci. Roma-Bari: Laterza, 1979; Gianni Francioni. Lofficina gramsciana. Ipotesi sulla struttura dei Quaderni del carcere. Napoli: Bibliopolis, 1984; Giuseppe Cospito. Egemonia. In Fabio Frosini and Guido Liguori, eds. Le parole di Gramsci: Per un lessico dei Quaderni del carcere. Ed. Fabio Frosini and Guido Liguori. Roma: Carocci, 2004. 74-92; Cospito Giuseppe. Egemonia. In Guido Liguori and Pasquale Voza, eds. Dizionario Gramsciano. Roma: Carocci, 2009. 266-269. Derek Boothman The Sources for Gramscis Concept of Hegemony. Rethinking Marxism 20.2 (2008): 201-215 offers new important insights and information for the discussion about the sources of Gramscis pivotal concept. 384 A diachronic view allowed Francioni to critique what Perry Anderson considered antinomies of Gramscis thought. See Anderson. The Antinomies of Antonio Gramsci. See Gianni Francioni. Lofficina gramsciana.

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linguistics at the University of Torino (Lo Piparo), and as a strategic term leading towards a post-Marxist notion of power and ideology (Laclau-Mouffe).386 If we look at Gramscis notes closely, we can observe that the wide range of his uses of the concept of hegemony is both applied as a category to discuss theoretical issues concerning the political situation contemporary to him, but also adopted as an insightful category for investigating, interpreting, and re-writing the past in its long arch from antiquity to modernity. This chapter is not dedicated to a nuanced philological search about Gramscis varied views on hegemony. It is rather devoted to trace one way through which Gramscis uses of the notion of hegemony in his notes concerning the medieval vernacular language can be brought to bear on to reconsider Dantes hunt for an illustrious vernacular. From this perspective, Dantes hunt appears as a search for cultural hegemony. The modern term hegemony derives from the ancient Greek ghmona (hegemonia), whose root is the verb gw (ago), to lead, to guide, to push forward.387 This verb is also the basis of the Latin verb agire, to act. As the Etymological Dictionary of Italian language records, the original idea incorporated in the verb agire quella di muovere, donde ne sorsero poi diversi significati, tali nel greco quelli di guidare, menare, portare, alzare, allevare, sollevare (un peso), pesare, e fig. osservare, stimare, giudicare, assumere in incarico, e nel latino anche andare, venire, fare, operare,
385 386

Alberto Burgio. Il nodo dellegemonia in Gramsci. Appunti sulla struttura plurale di un concetto. For additional information on Gramscis notion of hegemony and its interpreters see Guido Liguori. Legemonia e i suoi interpreti. In Angelo DOrsi, ed. Egemonie. 45-64. See also Guido Liguori. Gramsci conteso: Storia di un dibattito 1922-1996. Roma: Editori Riuniti, 1996. 387 From a historical perspective, the decision of which city should have be the ghmon (hegemon, i.e. the leader) among the most powerful cities of ancient Greece traces a crucial moment in the history of the Greek civilization. See, for instance, John Wickersham. Hegemony and Greek Historians. Lanham: Rowman&Littlefield, 1994.

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diportarsi, vivere, procurare, trattare, dire, raccontare.388 Throughout Gramscis notes, hegemony does not simply equal generic terms such as power (potere) or dominion (dominio), as an ordinary understanding of the word might suggest. As Giuseppe Cospito observed, in dealing with the concept of hegemony, already in the first notebook (Q 1, 44) Gramsci oscilla tra un senso pi ristretto di direzione, contrapposto a dominio, e uno pi ampio comprensivo di entrambi (direzione e dominio).389 Indeed, for Gramsci, a social group exerts its supremacy in two ways, as political dominion and as intellectual and moral direction. Schematically, political dominion, for Gramsci, is exerted over the political adversaries, while leadership or direction is the type of relationship exerted on similar and allied groups.390 As Q19, 24 (p. 2010) makes clear, Gramsci does not see these two modes as simply opposed. He rather conceives them as two different phases of achieving political hegemony, composed of both coercion and consent. Indeed, before achieving the political governance, un gruppo sociale pu e anzi deve essere dirigente []; dopo, quando esercita il potere e anche se lo tiene fortemente in pugno, diventa dominante ma deve continuare ad essere anche dirigente.391 In general terms, a cultural direction can be considered hegemonic, though not fully dominant, when operatively it is able lead toward a diverse understanding of reality. 392 For this reason, cultural divulgation, i.e. the diffusion of culture in society, is a
388

Ottorino Pianigiani. Vocabolario etimologico della lingua italiana. Roma-Milano: Societ editrice Dante Alighieri di Albrighi Segati, 1907. 389 Giuseppe Cospito. Egemonia. In Guido Liguori and Pasquale Voza, eds. Dizionario Gramsciano. 266. See also Cospito. Egemonia. In Fabio Frosini and Guido Liguori, eds. Le parole di Gramsci. 74-92. 390 See Q 4, 49. 476. 391 Q 19, 24. 2010-1. 392 Derek Boothman re-considered the notion of hegemony in comparison with Thomas Kuhns concept of

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crucial element for achieving and/or changing the hegemony of one worldview or another.393 In this respect, two notions are pivotal for Gramscis view of hegemony. The first is that ogni rapporto di egemonia necessariamente un rapporto pedagogico;394 the second, connected to the first, is that the conquest of hegemony cannot occur without influencing the centers through which culture, language, and knowledge is diffused, as Q 29 finally emphasizes. For this reason, ethical-political history is crucial for Gramscis philosophy of praxis, because through this kind of history is possible to recognize the reality of a moment of hegemony, i.e. of the cultural and moral direction. 395 Hegemony is thus never a natural and eternal characteristic of our epistemological and ideological view of reality. 396 It is always involved in the historical world and, thus, modifiable through both theoretical elaboration and political agency. 397 This is why the notion of hegemony does not refer to one specific ideology, although debates about hegemony can involve discussions on different ideologies.

paradigm. See his Traduzione e traducibilit. Perugia: Guerra, 2004. See Rocco Lacorte. Divulgazione. In Guido Liguori and Pasquale Voza, eds. Dizionario Gramsciano. 240. 394 See Q10(II), 44. 1331. In Gramscis notion of pedagogy lies a complex notion of dialogue between teacher and learner, in which both the teacher and the learner can be teachers and learners at the same time. It is also to be recalled that Gramsci follows the distinction between instruction and education. While for fascist philosopher and Minister of Education Giovanni Gentile, the pedagogical moment had to focus on the instruction provided by the teacher to the learner, for Gramsci education as an intersubjective dialogue between teacher and learner is the key moment of both teaching and learning. 395 Q 10, 7. 1224. 396 A similar idea has been pointed out by Edward Said: Legemonia non un fatto scontato o naturale della vita, ma un prodotto storico, intorno al quale si svolge continuamente una lotta. Gramsci e lunit di filosofia, politica, economia. In Giorgio Baratta and Andrea Catone, eds. Modern Times: Gramsci e la critica dellAmericanismo. Milano: Diffusioni, 1987. 355. 397 Eternity as un-modifiability is what the notion of hegemony opposes the most. Not in the sense that faith in eternal truths cannot be part of hegemonic ideological beliefs, which, on the contrary, is the most commonly ideological notion used to maintain the stability of power relationships. In fact, the consideration of hegemony as opposed to eternity means that hegemony presupposes notions of contingency, sub-alternity, translation, metaphor, change and transformation of present states of affairs.
393

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Diverse ideologies can in turn be used to achieve hegemony. Therefore, processes of achieving hegemony and engaging ideology are strictly connected. This corresponds to Gramscis contention that laffermazione di Marx che gli uomini prendono coscienza nel terreno delle ideologie ha un valore gnoseologico e non puramente psicologico e morale, avrebbe anchesso pertanto un valore gnoseologico.398 In other words, the consideration of awareness-achievement through ideological-confrontation is rich with epistemic implications. This is also true for literary criticism, cultural studies, and intellectual history. As Larry Scanlon observed, the terms ideology and hegemony are crucial to redefining the problem of authority, because they correct the idealizations of traditionalists like Hannah Arendt. At the same time, we cannot use them as simple replacements of the older term.399 Gramscis notion of national-cultural politics used in Q 29, 7 implies the notion of cultural direction, as Q 29, 2 suggests.400 De vulgari eloquentia was, according to Gramscis interpretation, an attempt to give a new direction to culture against the conservative view and use of Latin (that Gramsci in Q29, 7 called mandarinismo latineggiante) and the political fragmentation of Italy. In this respect, Dantes search for a vernacular eloquence is for Gramsci a cultural-political act aimed at attempting to establish unity.

398

See Q 4, 38. 464-5; Q 10 II, 12. 1249. See also Boothman. The Sources for Gramscis Concept of Hegemony. 201-202. 399 Larry Scanlon. Narrative, Authority, and Power: The Medieval Exemplum and the Chaucerian Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1994. 52. 400 La grammatica normativa scritta quindi sempre una scelta, un indirizzo culturale, cio sempre un atto di politica culturale-nazionale. Q 29, 2. 2344.

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In the remainder of this chapter, I interpret Dantes hunt for an illustrious vernacular as a search for a cultural hegemony. In doing so, I do not conceive the concept of hegemony as a theoretical grid or structure to be mechanically imposed on Dantes text, but I suggest a way to read Dantes poetic labor and his conceptualization of an illustrious vernacular language as a process, both ideological and performative, to achieve a leading cultural direction, i.e. a cultural hegemony.

2. Dantes Caesarism and Gramscis Hegemony

Gramscis notes on Dante imply and suggest that we obtain a better understanding of Dantes writings and his intellectual evolution if we consider them from a historicist perspective. In Q6, 85, Gramsci indeed pointed out that Dantes political theory (for Gramsci, a utopia) was strictly related to his experience as an exile, marginalized by the political struggles. In Dantes utopia Gramsci contends the war between classes could have been abolished through the intervention of an arbitrating power. Al disopra delle lotte interne comunali, che erano un alternarsi di distruzioni ed estermini, Dante sogna una societ superiore al Comune, superiore sia alla Chiesa che appoggia i Neri come al vecchio impero che appoggiava i ghibellini, sogna una forma che imponga una legge superiore alle parti ecc. un vinto della guerra delle classi che sogna labolizione di questa guerra sotto il segno di un potere arbitrale.401 The general purpose of this note is to distinguish the ways Dante and Machiavelli deal with the historical past. Gramsci wishes to perform a strategy of criticism against fascist (mis)uses of both Dante and Machiavelli as anticipatory theorists of the Duce Dante with the theory of the Emperor, Machiavelli with that of the Prince. For Gramsci,

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Dante looked at the Latin past to find and justify his view of Empire as the only form of government that might have solved the class struggles, which generated his own defeat and exile. As Gramsci emphasizes at the end of the note, Dante un vinto della guerra delle classi Ma il vinto, con tutti i rancori, le passioni, i sentimenti del vinto, anche un dotto che conosce le dottrine e la storia del passato. Il passato gli offre lo schema romano augusteo e il suo riflesso medioevale, lImpero romano della nazione germanica. Egli vuole superare il presente, ma con gli occhi rivolti al passato. Anche il Machiavelli aveva gli occhi al passato, ma in ben altro modo di Dante ecc.402 Without analyzing in depth Gramscis dialectical reasoning on Dantes and Machiavellis views on the past, it is worth noticing that the notion of an arbitrating power between destructive forces is what Gramsci will consider as the essence of Caesarism in Q 13. Il cesarismo esprime una situazione in cui le forze in lotta si equilibrano in modo catastrofico, cio si equilibrano in modo che la continuazione della lotta non pu concludersi che con la ditruzione reciproca. Quando la forza progressiva A lotta con la forza regressiva B, pu avvenire che non solo che A vinca B o B vinca A, pu avvenire anche che non vinca n A n B, ma si svenino reciprocamente e una terza forza C intervenga dallesterno assoggettando ci che resta di A e di B. Ma il cesarismo, se esprime sempre la soluzione arbitrale, affidata a una grande personalit, di una situazione storico-politica caratterizzata da un equilibrio di forze a prospettiva catastrofica, non ha sempre lo stesso significato storico. 403
401 402

Q 6, 85. 759-60. Emphasis mine. Ibid. 403 Q 13, 27. 1619. In a recent piece on the Corriere della sera, Luciano Canfora developed the idea that Gramscis reflections on Caesarism have important theoretical implications. As Canfora posits it, in queste pagine nella prima e soprattutto nella seconda stesura racchiuso un giudizio meditato sia sullesperienza del fascismo che probabilmente su quella dello stalinismo, considerate non gi con locchio e il tono agitatorio di chi immerso nella lotta e ne parte, ma assunti in una razionalit della storia di cui la categoria del cesarismo la chiave. Ed forse una chiave primaria per intendere lintero corpus gramsciano carcerario, cio successivo alla sconfitta ed al progressivo affermarsi del Cesare. See Luciano Canfora, Cos Gramsci disobbed a Marx. Contro le sue indicazioni, applic il cesarismo a Napoleone III, Mussolini e forse anche Stalin. Corriere della sera (August 28, 2009). See also Canfora. Su Gramsci. Roma: Datanews, 2007. From this viewpoint, Gramscis reflection on Dante seems to be particular significant. Given that from a philological viewpoint, Q 6 (1930-1934) chronologically precedes Q 13 (1932-1934), the use of the expression arbitrating power with regard to Dante seems to anticipates the later use of the term in the notes about Caesarism. In this respect, Gramscis reflection on Dantes ethical-political views seems to be more relevant than it has been recognized thus far.

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For Gramsci, the fatal divisions of the Communes in Dantes age conditioned the Florentine poet to turn his gaze to the past in search for a theory of the Emperor as an arbitrating power able to balance the divisive forces at play in the Communes. Gramscis idea can be supported through textual evidence from those of Dantes texts in which the Florentine intellectual claimed that the offitium of the Emperor is to arbitrate the conflicting parties and bring concordia to humanity. 404 Indeed, passages such as De Monarchia I.x, makes this clear. Et ubicunque potest esse litigium, ibi debest esse iudicium; aliter esset inperfectum sine proprio perfectivo: quod est inpossibile, cum Deus et natura in necessariis non deficiat. Inter omnes duos principes, quorum alter alteri minime subiectus est, potest esse litigium vel culpa ipsorum vel etiam subditorum quod de se patet : ergo inter tales oportet esse iudicium. Et cum alter de altero cognoscere non possit ex quo alter alteri non subditur nam par in parem non habet imperium oportet esse tertium iurisdictionis amplioris qui ambitu sui iuris ambobus principetur. Et hic aut erit Monarchia aut non. Si sic, habetur propositum; si non, iterum habebit sibi coequalem extra ambitum sue iurisdictionis: tunc iterum necessaries erit tertius alius. Et sic aut erit processus in infinitu, quod esse non potest, aut oportebit divenire ad iudicem primum et summum, de cuius iudicio cuncta litigia dirimantur sive mediate sive immediate: et hic erit Monarcha sive Imperator. Est igitur Monarchia necessaria mundo. Et hanc rationem videbat Phylosophus cum dicebat: Entia nolunt male disponi; malum autem pluralitas principatuum: unus ergo principes. (Emphasis mine) This passage describes in clear terms Dantes view on the Emperor as a historical figure who incorporates an arbitrating power within a situation of conflict. It is this situation to lead Dante claiming that the world-Monarchy was historically necessary (est igitur Monarchia necessaria mundo). In other words, as Gramsci also emphasized, a Caesarist arbitration is necessary when the forces at play in the political struggle si equilibrano in modo che la continuazione della lotta non pu concludersi che con la distruzione reciproca. The arbitrating authority therefore does not simply intervene to 163

absorb, appropriate or dominate other subaltern authorities, but to balance and provide a common measure to their behaviors in order to keep them alive and allow them to coexist. It should be highlighted that Marxist notions of hegemony, and particularly Gramscis, do not correspond to this notion of Caesarist authority. Actually, from a typological viewpoint on politics, what characterizes political systems founded on hegemony, such as modern democracies, is the absence of an arbitrating party external to those in conflict. These political systems allow and are constitutively made through the acceptance of a dialectic between at least two parties, coalition, or social groups, A and B, in which one can influence and rule the other, and vice versa. In this sense, for Gramsci, hegemony, dialectics, and modern democracy are interrelated ideas.405 Though hegemonic systems are not based on the arbitrating power of an authority external to the conflict among parties, we should point out that power relationships such as arbitration and hegemony are not simply mutually exclusive. One can indeed argue that arbitration among conflicting groups and individuals is a determinant relationship needed to achieve hegemony in specific context. In fact, in those situations a prospettiva catastrofica, without forms of arbitration, the dispersion and destruction of conflicting elements cannot be transcended, and social groups cannot be formed. In other words, hegemony can be achieved only when a concordia discors (i.e. a form of unity in diversity and diversity in unity406) is realized within the party, coalition, or the social
404 405

Mon. III.x.5. Q 8, 191. 1056. Egemonia e democrazia. Tra i tanti significati di democrazia, quello pi realistico e concreto mi pare si possa trarre in connessione col concetto di egemonia. Nel sistema egemonico, esiste democrazia tra il gruppo dirigente e i gruppi diretti. 406 The expression unity in diversity is also employed by Christian Moevs in The Metaphysical Basis of

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group. Now, turning back to Gramscis assertion that Ogni volta che affiora... la quistione della lingua, significa che si sta imponendo una serie di altri problemi: la formazione e lallargamento della classe dirigente, la necessit di stabilire rapporti pi intimi e sicuri tra i gruppi dirigenti e la massa popolare-nazionale,407 the following question should be tackled: Does Dantes arduous search for an illustrious vernacular language imply an articulation of the relationships between ruling and non-ruling groups? Did Dante, having been defeated by political struggles, attempt to re-organize his idea of the ideal vernacular through a class-centered view of language or through an ideal interclassist language? It is difficult to provide one brief answer to this question, for Dantes worldview cannot be simply absorbed into a series of sociological schemes. In what follows I attempt to sketch a way to tackle these questions.

3. Geography, Society, and the Ethical Court

The first book of Dve is designed along 13 main issues, which can be outlined as follows: 1. What is the topic of the treatise and why it is useful? 2. What do vernacular language and grammar mean? 3. Who needs language and who does not? 4. What is language? 5. Who is the first speaker and what did he say in his first speech? 6. To whom
Dantes Politics. In Michelangelo Picone, Theodore Cachey Jr., and Margherita Mesirca, eds. Le culture di Dante: Studi in onore di Robert Hollander. Firenze: Cesati, 2003. 215-241. In Gramsci studies Peter Ives has argued that Gramscis notion of hegemony can be seen as a form of diversity-inunity. See Peter Ives. Gramscis Politics of Language. Toronto: U Toronto P, 2004. 84. 407 Q 29, 3. 2345-6.

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did the first speaker speak? 7. Which language did the first speaker use? 8. Why are there numerous languages? 9. How are languages geographically distributed? 10. How many vernacular languages are there in Italy? 11. Which one is the most illustrious? 12. What is an illustrious vernacular and why is it necessary? 13. What is the plan of the treatise? As it is clear from this list of issues, no extended discussion is given to the question of how Dantes language is related to a class-centered perspective. Nonetheless, in reading Dantes treatise closely, one can find helpful elements to tackle the question. As is known, Dantes judgments of the fourteen vernaculars of Italy are varied: Tuscan and Roman idioms are rejected because they are a tristiloquium and turpiloquium; the vernacular idioms of the Marchigiani, Spoletini, Milanesi, and Bergamaschi, are ridiculed by poets; those of the Friulani and Istriani, along with the mountain and countryside people do not sound well as urban vernaculars; Sardinians are placed into a paradoxical situation, for they do not really speak a vernacular but imitate Latin grammar as apes imitate humans; the Apulians are rejected because they speak rough idioms close to Roman and Marchigiano. The only two idioms to receive a favorable evaluation from Dante are Bolognese and Sicilian, but they are rejected because not corresponding to what he was hunting. 408 Dantes view on the Sicilian vernacular idiom, i.e. the closest to the illustrious vernacular the poet is hunting, is particular helpful in dealing with the relationship between language and class in Dante.409 Dante himself admits that what he was searching
408

For a discussion of the political implications of Dantes structuring of Italian vernaculars into inferior and superior with a particular focus on his treatment of Sardinian see Selenu Ideas. Un sentiero gramsciano verso la lingua sarda. Sassari: EDES, forthcoming. 409 Dve I.xii.2. Et primo de siciliano examinemus ingenium: nam videtur sicilianum vulgare sibi famam pre aliis asciscere, eo quod quicquid poetantur Ytali sicilianum vocatur, et eo quod perplures doctores

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was not the idiom spoken by the mediocris inhabitants of the island.410 In other words, the ideal vernacular language was not the idiom of low classes. It was rather modeled on the language of courtly poetry, which Dante, in dealing with the Apulian vernacular, also refers as polita (refined) and rich in vocabula curialora (courtly words).411 The courtly aspect of the illustrious language refers not only to an aesthetic dimension but is also the product of the ethical-political habitus expressed in the courts, as Dantes appreciation of the Sicilian court and Frederick the Second makes clear. 412 If Dantes worldview is never directed to the lower-middle classes (mediocribus), neither does it favor of the aristocratic families (among which Farinata
indigenas invenimus graviter cecinisse [...] English translation: First let us turn our attention to the language of Sicily, since the Sicilian vernacular seems to hold itself in higher regard than any other, first because all poetry written by Italians is called Sicilian, and then because we do indeed find that many learned natives of that island have written serious poetry [] 410 Dve I.xii.6. Et dicimus quod, si vulgare sicilianum accipere volumus secundum quod prodit a terrigenis mediocribus, ex ore quorum iudicium eliciendu videtur, prelationis honore minime dignum est, quia non sinde quondam tempore profertur [...]. English Trans.: So I say that, if by Sicilian vernacular we mean what is spoken by the average inhabitants of the island and they should clearly be our standard of comparison then this is far from worthy of the honour of heading the list, because it cannot be pronounced without a certain drawl [] 411 See Dve I.xii.8. 412 Dve I.xii.3-4: Sed hec fama trinacrie terre, si recte signum ad quod tendit inspiciamus, videtur tantu in obproprium ytalorum principum remansisse, qui non heroic more sed plebeio secuntur superbiam. Siquidem illustres heroes, Fredericus Cesar et benegnitus eius Manfredus, nobilitatem ac rectitudinem sue forme pandentes, dones fortuna permisit, humana secuti sunt, brutalia dedignantes. Propter quod corde nobiles atque gratiarum dotati inherere tantorum principum maiestati conati sunt, ita ut eorum tempore quicquid excellentes animi Latinorum enitebantur primitus in tantorum coronatorum aula prodibat; et quia regale solium erat Sicilia, factum est ut quicquid nostril predecessors vulgariter prolerunt, sicilianum vocetur: quod quidem retinemus et nos, nec posteri nostril permutare valebunt. English Trans.: But this fame enjoyed by the Trinacrian isle, if we carefully consider the end to which it leads, seems rather to survive only as a reproof to the princes of Italy, who are so puffed up with pride that they live in a plebeian, not a heroic, fashion. Indeed, those illustrious heroes, the Emperor Frederick and his worthy son Manfred, knew how to reveal the nobility and integrity that were in their hearts; and, as long as fortune allowed, they lived in a manner befitting men, despising the bestial life. On this account, all who were noble of heart and rich in graces strove to attach themselves to the majesty of such worthy princes, so that, in their day, all that the most gifted individuals in Italy brought forth first came to light in the court of these two great monarchs. And since Sicily was the seat of the imperial throne, it came about that whatever our predecessors wrote in the vernacular was called Sicilian. This term is still in use today, and posterity will be able to do nothing to change it.

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and Cavalcante are good examples) nor the newborn bourgeois social groups composed of notaries, bankers, and merchants.413 In this respect, the view of Dante as the poet of the medieval Italian bourgeoisie is not compelling.414 Dantes judgments are indeed harshly addressed against the old elites and the newborn bourgeois classes. Many instances provide evidence. One can recall: Dantes criticism against the transformation of literature into a commodity in the Convivio; his invectives against European kings in Par. 18, Pope Boniface VIII in Inf. 19 and Purg. 20, the greedy wolves who led the Church as in Par. 27;415 or his scorn for the mala segnoria of Charles I of Anjou that generated in Sicilian popular classes a spirit of violence during the Vespers. 416 Yet, as I have recalled in the previous chapter, in dealing with the reasons why there are multiple languages on the earth, Dante refers to the divine punishment of ruling classes accountable for projecting the Tower of Babel and indicates the overturning of the social hierarchy through a parallel between language and labor distribution. Therefore, it is misleading to represent Dantes political and linguistic view as
413

For Dantes political view under a social perspective see John Najemy. Florence. In Richard Lansing, ed. Encyclopedia Dantesca. New York: Routledge, 2000 and A History of Florence. Oxford: Blackwell, 2006; Justin Steinberg. Accounting for Dante: Urban Readers and Writers in Late Medieval Italy. Notre Dame: U of Notre Dame P, 2007. Albert R. Ascoli. Dante and the Making of a Modern Author. Cambridge: Cambridge U P, 2008. See also Aldo Vallone. Lineamenti di Dante medievale. In Studi su Dante medievale. Firenze: Olschki, 1965. 11-20. 414 In his preface to the Italian Edition of the Communist Manifesto dated 1893 and translated by Antonio Labriola, Engles whished that Come lItalia borghese medievale ebbe il suo poeta in Dante, speriamo che anche lItalia proletaria abbia il suo nuovo poeta. In the same respect, I also find Pasolinis attempt to attach Dante to a specific class-centered language not compelling. According to Pasolini, the enlargement of Dantes linguistic spectrum is related to Dantes decision to write the Comedy in the lingua della borghesia comunale fiorentina. Pier Paolo Pasolini. La volont di Dante a essere poeta. In Empirismo eretico. Milano: Garzanti, 2000. 104. 415 Non fu la sposa di Cristo allevata / del sangue mio, di Lin, di quel di Cleto, / per essere ad acquisto doro usata; / ma, per acquisto doro usata; / ma per, acquisto desto viver lieto, / e Sisto e Pio e Calisto e Urbano / sparser lo sangue dopo molto fleto. / [...] In vesta di pastor lupi rapaci / si veggion di qua su per tutti i paschi: / o difesa di Dio, perch pur giaci? Par. 27.40-45 and 55-57. 416 Par. 8.73. se mala segnoria, che sempre accora / li popoli suggetti, non avesse / mosso Palermo a gridar: Mora, mora!

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simply the expression of one social group. More than the belonging to a specific class, Dante judges the behaviors of ruling groups and individuals by through what he considered a just ethical agency. In other words, behind Dantes evaluations and judgments there is always an ethical-political position. What Dante attempted to propose in Dve was a type of language able to transcend the divisions produced by municipal divisive forces. At the time of De vulgari eloquentia, Dante was conscious that the type of vernacular language he was hunting was not a stable object to find in a specific place. In fact, it is conceived as a scent spread through the Italian territory.417 Given the absence of a central court an institution that we can parallel with Bartoli and Gramscis notion of irradiation center418 this language was expression of those who had to move from one royal court to the other. Dante identifies these hosting places as humble asylums. 419 Therefore, in the historical period in which Dante was writing his works, the vernacular language is a pilgrim like the poet in exile. Yet, the political direction he tries to indicate in his treatise traces a way to produce a common language of Italy to be spread by a central court (Dve I.xviii). This language is described as illustre, curiale, aulica, and cardinale.420 Given the dispersive and exilic nature of the vernacular idioms
417 418

Dve I.xvi.4-5. See Q 29. 419 Dve I.xviii.3: Et hinc est quod in regiis omnibus conversantes semper illustri vulgari locuntur; hinc etiam est quod nostrum illustre velut acola peregrinatur et in humilibus ospitatur asilis, cum aula vacemus. Emphasis mine. English Trans.: So this is why those who frequent any royal court always speak an illustrious vernacular; it is also why our illustrious vernacular wanders around like a homeless stranger, finding hospitality in more humble homes because we have no court. 420 As Gramsci would highlight, to produce a common language means to stimulate a new intellectual order, a new philosophy. In this respect, the fact that Dante was writing the linguistic treatise of the De

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and the absence of a central court, what characterizes for Dante the unity of the illustrious vernacular language was a gratiosum lumen rationis.421 In light of the parallel between linguistic dispersion and exilic condition, it is worth to point out that Dante imagined his hunt for the illustrious vernacular as tied to the search for the glory of the language, to which he refers both in Dve I.vii and Purg. 11. The glory of language for Dante has a transformative potential, given that it can help the poet to transcend the exilic conditions of poverty and eradication in which he was living. In the terms of Dve, the metaphor of the panther is suggestive in this sense. Like the sweet scent produced by the panther, the sweet style of the illustrious vernacular generates the glory of the language, one that might direct the will beyond exilic dispersion: Quantum vero suos familiares gloriosos efficiat, nos ipsi novimus, qui huius dulcedine glorie nostrum exilium postergamus. 422 Therefore, the gratiosum lumen rationis embedded in the illustrious language is imagined in Dve I.xvii.4-5 as a general principle able to transform peoples will and social belonging. Quod autem exaltatum sit potestate, videtur. Et quid maioris potestatis est quam quod humana corda versare potest, ita ut nolentem volentem et volentem nolentem faciat, velut ipsum et fecit et facit? Quod qutem honore sublimet, in promptu est. Nonne domestici sui reges, marchiones, comites, et magnates quoslibet fama vincunt? Minime hoc probatione indiget.423
vulgari eloquentia in parallel with his philosophical treatise of the Convivio seems significant. On the expression gratiosum lumen rationis see A. P. DEntreves. Dante as a Political Thinker. Oxford: Clarendon, 1952. 76-97. 422 Dve I.xvii.6: And I myself have known how greatly it increases the glory of those who serve it, I who, for the sake of that glorys swetness, have the experience of exile behind me. 423 Dve I.xvii.4-5: That it is exalted in power is plain. And what greater power could there be than that which can melt the hearts of human beings, so as to make the unwilling willing and the willing unwilling, as it is has done and still does? That it raises to honour is readily apparent. Does not the fame of its devotees exceed that of any king, marquis, count or warlord? There is no need to prove this. And I myself have known how greatly it increases glory of those who serve it, I who, for the sake of that glorys sweetness, have the experience of exile behind.
421

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As particularly the Comedy will factually demonstrate, Dantes elevation of the vernacular as a powerfully expressive language of poetry does not exclude vulgar linguistic elements.424 On the contrary, as Pasolini remarked, lallargamento linguistico di Dante, dovuto allo spostamento del suo punto di vista in alto luniversalismo teologico medioevale non solo un allargamento dellorizzonte lessicale e espressivo: ma, insieme, anche sociale.425

4. Illustrious Vernacular, Poetic Justice, and Poetry of Praxis

As we have seen, according to Q 29, 7, in the period of the Communes, intellectuals and, in the most evident way, Dantes Dve elevated the fact into theory. From this standpoint, it is worth reading Dantes treatise closely. In this respect, Dve I.xvi-xix is particularly relevant, since in this part of the treatise Dante shifts from the description of linguistic facts to the theorization of his ideal language. In Dantes hunt for an illustrious vernacular language we can recognize at least two modes of inquiry. The first aims to empirically report and judge the diverse vernacular idioms of Italy, while the second aims at constructing an ideal concept of language through which measuring and selecting the elements to be incorporated in the language Dante was looking for. These two modes are not separate and independent; rather, they are complementary and interdependent. After the empirical search for an illustrious vernacular in chapters xi-xv fails, Dante in the following sections (xvi-xix) provides a theory of the illustrious vernacular
424 425

Here I am intentionally using the term vulgar in its ambivalent sense of coarse and popular. Pasolini. La volont di Dante a essere poeta. In Empirismo eretico. Milano: Garzanti, 2000. 104.

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language. Actually, although, in the structure of the treatise, the mapping of the vernacular idioms of Italy precedes the theorization of a concept of illustrious language, one could wonder to what extent Dantes mapping and selection of the Italian vernacular idioms derives from a preliminary conceptualization of an ideal vernacular.one. In other words, how could Dante distinguish good and bad vernacular forms, without having already an ideal model through which measuring and comparing the diverse vernacular idioms? This question leads to a breakup of the linearity of the textual structure and allows us to have a better view on the rhetorical strategy Dante uses to present his arguments in the first book of his treatise. In Dve I.xvi-xix, Dante establishes his authority on the theory of the illustrious vernacular by employing different strategies, the first of which was to declare the failure of his previous empirical search and, consequently, to claim that a theory of the illustrious vernacular would help the hunter to catch his prey (Dve I, xvi, 1). Yet, through his first attempt to hunt the illustrious vernacular language in chapters xixv, Dante has already begun to persuade his readers that he had acquired such an extended knowledge of the linguistic matter to be able to define, select, and reject the fourteen vernacular idioms of Italy. After acquiring this authoritative position, Dante can now direct his strategy to catch the panther and move from an empirical investigation to the theory of the illustrious vernacular language. It is important to emphasize the specific rhetorical strategy Dante employs when he claims that a theory of language is needed, since the preliminary empirical search through the Italian forest had failed. This strategy, in my view, aims at persuading the reader that theory comes after the observation of reality, which is difficult 172

to believe from a logical perspective. Dante does not imagine this search for theory as an ascent to a transcendent realm. Rather he imagines it as a moment of action in which he grabs the hunting weapons (venabula nostra426) to continue his hunt for the panther. The hunting weapons to which Dante refers, arguably, are related to the solerti studio indicated a few lines earlier. Indeed, in re-arming himself, the poet engages specifically logical reasoning a point that confirms that his hunt consists of a rational investigation (rationabilius investigemus427) as highlighted in the preceding paragraph (Dve I.xvi.1). Resumentes igitur venabula nostra, dicimus quod in omni genere rerum unum esse oportet quo generis illius omnia comparentur et ponderentur, et a quo omnium aliorum mensuram accipiamus: sicut in numero cuncta mensurantur uno, et plura vel pauciora dicuntur secundum quod distant ab uno vel ei propinquant, et sicut in coloribus omnes albo mensurantur nam visibiles magis et minus dicuntur secundum quod accedunt vel recedunt ab albo. 428 In this passage, Dante engages in analogical reasoning. The language he is hunting is considered analogous to the color white and the number one. They are respectively standards of measurement for balancing other colors and other numbers. 429 Likewise, the illustrious vernacular language should be the unit of measurement for other vernacular forms. 430 Dantes parallel co-ordinating the illustrious vernacular, the color
426

Dante took the term venabula and irretiamus (Dve I.xvi.1) from Aeneid 4.131, retia rara, plagae, lato venabula ferro. 427 Dve I.xvi.1. 428 Dve I.xvi.2. This excerpt constitutes the textual bridge connecting Dantes admission of the failure of the previous empirical search (Dve I.xvi.1) to the definition of the concept of an illustrious vernacular language (Dve I.xvi.2ff). English Trans.: Accordingly, I take up my equipment once more for the hunt, and state that in any kind of thing there needs to be one instance with which all others can be compared, against which they can be weighed, and from which we derive the standard by which all others are measured. Thus, in arithmetic, all numbers are measured by comparison with the nuber one, and are deemed larger or smaller according to their relative distance from or closeness to that number. Likewise with colours, all are measured against white, and held to be brighter or darker as they approach or recede from that colour. 429 The notion of balance is also tied to the root of the verb ago the etymological root for hegemony. 430 On the notion of illustrious vernacular as a measure, see also Daniela Boccassini. Il volo della mente.

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white, and the number one helps us to reflect on the ethical-political value of his search for an illustrious vernacular. Indeed, Dante employs a similar parallel in De Monarchia, when he defines his view about justice. Ad evidentiam subassumpte sciendum quod iustitia, de se et in propria natura considerata, est quedam rectitude sive regula obliquum hinc ind abiciens: et sic non recipit magis et minus, quemadmodum albedo in suo abstracto considerata. 431 In this passage, Dante conceives justice as a rule and rectitude, to which one cannot subtract or add anything, similarly to the color white considered abstractly. As the Comedy will clarify, the color white is an effect of the light irradiated by the sum goodness of God, che non ha fine e s con s misura (Par. 19). Only sins can obscure this light and disjoint its unity: Solo il peccato quel che la disfranca, e falla dissimile al sommo bene; per che del lume suo poco simbianca.432 In this respect, Dantes contention in Conv. I.xiii.12 that the vernacular language or culture sar luce nuova, sole nuovo, lo quale surger l dove lusato tramonter, e dar lume a coloro che sono in tenebre e in oscuritade, per lo usato sole che a loro non luce seems to be poignant. It indeed indicates that the vernacular is not only a means of communication for Dante but a transformative means able to bring light on those who are obscured by the decline of the usato sole, arguably the Latin language. The light-sun metaphor as applied to the vernacular language/culture is coherent with the idea of an illustrious vernacular embodying a gratiosum lumen rationis.
Ravenna: Longo, 2003. 340. Boccassini interprets Dve I.xvi as if implying a de-ontologizzazione della pantera-vernacolare illustre, la quale non in realt un essere bens una misura dellessere, un dinamico manifestarsi e trapassare del divino nel linguaggio. 431 Mon. I.xi.3. English trans.: one must be aware that Justice, considered in herself and in her own nature, is a certain rectitude or rule avoiding any deviation to either side, and, that, thus, she accepts nothing more and nothing less, just as does whiteness, considered in the abstract.

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Now, as is known, rectitude is exactly what Dante, in the second book of Dve, considers to be the subject of his own poetry, which he mastered better than any other poet in Italy. 433 Dantes self-awareness of being an authority for ethical poetry, i.e. a type of poetry aimed at directing the human will toward virtue and justice is particularly relevant for our search on the ethical-political significance of his linguistic and poetic project. Indeed, as implied in Dve I.ii.1-8, his search for poetic excellence bears a sense of poetic justice434 aimed at directing the readers will. This is why we might see Dantes poetic work as a poetry of praxis, in which poetry and theory are directed toward the goal
432 433

Par. 7.78-80. See also Conv. III.ii.5-6. Dve II.ii.1-8. Postquam non omnes versificantes sed tantum excellentissimos illustre uti vulgare debere astruximus, consequens est atruere atrum utrum omnia ipso tractanda sin taut non; et si non omnia, que ipso digna sunt segregatim ostendere. [] Unde cum hoc quod dicimus illustre sit optimum aliorum vulgarium, consequens est ut sola optima digna sint ipso tractari, que quidem tractandorum dignissima nuncupamus. [] Quare hec tria, salus videlicet, venus et virtus, apparent esse illa magnolia que sint maxime pertractanda, hoc est ea que maxime sunt ad ista, ut armorum probitas, amoris accensio et directio voluntatis. Circa que sola, si bene recolimus, illustres viros invenimus vulgariter poetasse, scilicet Bertramum de Bornio arma, Arnaldum Danielem armorem, Gerardum de Bornello rectitudinem; Cynum Pistoiensem amorem, amicum eius rectitudinem. [] Arma vero nullum latium adhuc invenio poetasse. Emphases mine. English Trans.: Now that I have explained that not all poets, but only the very best of them, should use the illustrious vernacular, it becomes necessary to establish whether or not it can be used to discuss all subjects; and, if not, to show separately which subjects are worthy of it. [] So since the vernacular I call illustrious is the best of all vernaculars, it follows that only the best subjects are worthy to be discussed in it, and those, of the subjects that can be discussed, are those ones we call most worthy. [] So these three things, well-being, love, and virtue, appear to be those most important subjects that are to be treated in the loftiest style; or at least this is true of the themes most closely associated with them, prowess in arms, ardour in love, and control of ones own will. On these themes alone, if I remember rightly, we find that illustrious individuals have written poetry in the vernacular: Bertran de Born on arms, Arnaut Daniel on love, Giraut de Borneil on integrity; Cino da Pistoia on love, his friend on integrity. [] As for arms, I find that no Italian has yet treated them in poetry. 434 The notion of poetic justice was also used by John Freccero in Infernal Irony: The Gates of Hell. Dante: The Poetics of Conversion. 105: I would like to suggest rather that the punishments are a clear example of what was later to be called poetical justice, with all of the irony that the phrase implies. Yet, we can also assert the opposite that the use of irony in specific contexts can enact forms of poetic justice. For a political evaluation of irony and sarcasm see Gramsci. Q 26, 5. 2301. Il sarcasmo (come nel piano letterario ristretto delleducazione dei piccoli gruppi, lironia) appare pertanto come la componente letteraria di una serie di esigenze teoriche e pratiche che superficialmente possono apparire come insanabilmente contraddittorie; il suo elemento essenziale la passionalit che diventa criterio della potenza stilistica individuale (della sincerit, della profonda convinzione in opposto al pappagallismo e al meccani<ci>smo). For a theoretical discussion of the notion of poetic justice see also Martha C. Nussbaum. Poetic Justice: The Literary Imagination and Public Life. Boston: Beacon, 1995.

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of enlighten (lucidare) the understanding of the vulgares gentes in order to re-direct their wills toward a collective sense of civil concord.435 In this respect, the fictional construction of the figure of Beatrice as an embodiment of virtue and source of freedom is pivotal. Indeed, as Virgil makes clear in Inf. 2.105, Beatrice was the person that allowed Dante to emerge from the volgare schiera.436 Coherently, in Par. 31, Dante depicts Beatrice as the woman who saved and
435

The notion of poetry of praxis is at odds with Aristotles distinction between praxis and poiesis. Evidence that Dante did not espouse a radical distinction between praxis and poetry is provided by the metaphor of the fabbro used to refer to his own poetic labor and the verb fabbricare to refer to the labor-action needed to produce language. In addition, Mon. I.ii.5 provides evidence that political theorization is for Dante a moment of both agency (praxis) and making (poiesis). In this respect, Dante enacts a nexus among praxis, poiesis, and theory. As Gramsci pointed out in Q8, 199, one should research, study, and critique the various forms in which the concept of the unity of theory and praxis has been presented in the history of ideas. Intellectus speculativus extensione fit practicus [by St. Thomas]: theory by simple extension becomes practice an affirmation of the necessary connection between the order of ideas and the order of facts that is found in Artistotelian philosophy and in scholasticism. Likewise, the other aphorism [on science (by Leibniz) that is quoted as]: quo magis speculative magis practica. Vicos proposition verum ipsum factum, which Croce develops in the idealistic sense, namely that knowing is doing and that one knows that which one does (). Historical materialism is certainly indebted to this concept (as originally found in Hegel and not in its Crocean derivation). On recent engagement of Vicos views see Timothy Brennan. Wars of Position: The Cultural Politics of Left and Right. New York: Columbia, 2006. For Aristotles distinction between praxis and poiesis see Franco Volpi. The Rehabilitation of Practical Philosophy and NeoAristotelianism. In Robert Bartlett and Susan D. Collins, eds. Action and Contemplation: Studies in the Moral and Political Thought of Aristotle. Albany, NY: State U of New York P, 1999. 3-25. 436 As I have already remarked in the third chapter, the category of volgare does not simply relate to notions of literacy, linguistic division, labor distribution, or power relations, entails a complex ethicalpolitical worldview in which notions of individual will, free choice, and vice are interdependently at stake. What Dantes view of the volgare gente suggests (if we also follow Convivio) is that people are or become vulgar in the ethical-political sense I have pointed out in the third chapter when they are led by sins and vices, in particular by avarice and greed (cupidigia). Dantes love for Beatrice made him able to overcome the vulgare schiera, by liberating the poet from the servitude of vices. Dante uses the term volgare only once in the Comedy and very rarely in his other poems. The quasi-absence of the term in his poems may be a semiotic trace that points to the work of de-vulgarization Dante attempted to enact through his poetic labor. Indeed, for Dante, only poetry could harmonize and reorganize the confused and disaggregated linguistic world of the diverse Italian vernacular idioms. Moreover, the association of volgare and schiera in Inf. 2.105 covers an oxymoron: volgare refers to the status of dispersion, disaggregation embedded in the Latin term vulgus, while schiera refers to a form of unified aggregate of people similar to that of the troop or the beehive. The oxymoron offers a fine image of the way Dante, through the love of Beatrice, sought to become a singularity, i.e. an exception, the out-standing intellectual who was able to emerge (usc) from the volgare schiera. The fact that almost at the end of his journey, Dante recalls this view of Beatrice and his own laborious efforts to transcend the homologation of the vulgar multitude is particularly significant. This allows us to think that what Dante narrates in the second canto of the Inferno not only expresses Dantes distinction from preceding courtly poetry in the vernacular. Actually, as a mnemonic trace, this verse

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liberated him from his sins: Tu mhai di servo tratto a libertate per tutte quelle vie, per tutti modi che di ci fare avei la potestate.437 Therefore, the ethical dimension Beatrice incorporates in the narrative of the Comedy as well as the stylistic exemplarity of the maestro and autore Virgil are the major means Dante-the author employs to imagine the de-vulgarization of his own self, and, potentially, of the vulgar people(s). 438 Now, as we have seen, rectitude is what Dante in the Dve had recognized as the main feature of his own poetry. The term rectitude is also connected to that of justice and both of them are for Dante units of measurement though which judging human agency and desires. This unit of measurement for Dante cannot be multiple: it is a unity through which the multiplicity of the real could be harmonized. As Justinian will say in Par. 6, nel commensurar di nostri gaggi col merto parte di nostra letizia, perch non li vedem minor n maggi. Quindi, addolcisce la viva giustizia in noi laffetto s, che non si puote torcer gi mai ad alcuna nequizia.
also prefigures the poets hope for salvation as also expressed, for instance, in Par. 31.79-90: O donna in cui la mia speranza vige, / e che soffristi per la mia salute / in inferno lasciar le tue vestige, / di tante cose quanti ho vedute, / dal tuo podere e dalla tua bontate / riconosco la grazia e la virtute. [...] 437 Emphasis mine. Here the notion of fare is of particular force and, I suggest, should be inter-textualized with Mon. I.ii.5 in which it is said: Est ergo sciendum quod quedam sunt que, nostre potestati minime subiacentia, speculari tantummodo possumus, operari autem non: velut mathematica, physica et divina; quedam vero sunt que, nostre potestati subiacentia, non solum speculari sed etiam operari possumus: et in his non operatio propter speculationem, sed hec propter illam assummitur, quoniam in talibus operatio est finis. English Trans.: For it must be noted that there are certain things (such as mathematics, the sciences and divinity) which are outside human control, and about which we can only theorize, but which we cannot affect by our actions; and then there are certain things which are without our control, where we can not only theorize but also act, and in these action is not for the sake of theory, but theorizing is for the sake of taking action, since in these the objective is to take action. 438 It is important to emphasize the prophetic nature of Dantes vision. Dante saw in his own destiny a Messianic moment rich with effects for the humanity to come.

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Diverse voci fanno dolci note; cos diversi scanni in nostra vita rendon dolce armonia tra queste rote.439 The ideological cluster including notions of unity, measure, justice, joy, sweetness, unity in diversity, and harmony is, I argue, the nexus between Dantes ethicalpolitical and linguistic views. Dantes use of the term note seems to embody this nexus. Indeed, he also uses it to refer to the linguistic elements of his own Commedia, when in Inf. 16.127-130, behaving as both a judge and a witness, he swears to his readers that he is telling the truth: ma qui tacer nol posso; e per le note / di questa comeda, lettor, ti giuro, / selle non sien di lunga grazia vote, chi vidi per quellaere grosso e scuro / venire notando una figura in suso. In addition, Dantes uses of the term note might be placed in inter-textual relationship with the contrast between Gods and Dantes notare to the Nimrodian idiom cha nullo noto. In this sense, Dantes poetic labor of noting aims at expressing and elaborating the unity through which comparing and measuring the diverse Italian vernacular idioms.

5. Dantes Poetic Imperialism: a Project for a Future Cultural Hegemony?

The Emperor is for Dante a unit of measurement, a bearer of justice, the only power/authority that can restore peace and bring concordia among dispersed and conflicting powers.440 He is a cavalcatore441 of the human will and his office is to lead
439 440

Par. 6.117-126. If we look closely to Dantes political treatise, De Monarchia, we find that the notion of unit of measurement (mensura) is crucial. See, for instance, Mon. III.xi.1. Summunt etenim sibi principium de decimo Prime phylosophie dicentes: omnia que sunt unius generis reducuntur ad unum, quod est

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the human will toward a new direction of peace and concordia. For Dante, bearing justice on earth, i.e. the imperative expressed in the heaven of Jupiter by the eagle of souls (Diligite Iustitiam Qui Iudicatis Terram Par. 19), means not only to apply a law over the political parties, but also to lead the human will toward a new direction of concordia. The scene of the eagle, presented in Par. 19, perfectly exemplifies the sense of concordia meant as a form of unity in diversity. As Ronald Martinez highlights, the just and pious eagle [] displays the basis of polity in the concord of wills [] most vividly in its speech, which expresses with the grammatical singular a conceptual plurality (both I and mine we and ours).442 Under a linguistic perspective, Dantes use of the verb arbitrare in his linguistic treatise brings evidence to the fact that the notion of arbitrating power is also helpful to let intersect Dantes political and linguistic theorizations. Quare, omnibus presentis capituli ad iudicium comparentibus, arbitramur nec romandiolum ne suum oppositum, ut dictum est, nec venetianum esse illud quod
mensura omnium que sub illo genere sunt; sed omnes homines sunt unius generis: ergo debent reduce ad unum, tanquam ad mensuram omnium eorum. Attingendo il principio dal decimo libro della Prima filosofia, essi dicono: tutte le cose che appartengonoa uno stesso genere si riconducono a una, la quale misura di tutte quelle che sono comprese sotto quel genere; ma tutti gli uomini appartengono a uno stesso genere; dunque debbono ricondursi ad uno come a misura di tutti. As we have seen, this notion is also pivotal in Dantes linguistic treatise. See Dve I.xvi. The notion of measure in the late Middle Ages is a complex notion. It underpins a series of concepts from Aristotles view on justice and virtue as proportion (analogia), which later was re-conceived by Saint Augustine and Thomas as the ground of being, for God is the measure of human beings. Moreover, it is a poetic notion used to refer to courtly wisdom typical of the troubadoric tradition. See Jacques Wettstein. Mezura: Lidal des troubadours. Son essence et ses aspects. Genve: Slatkine Reprints, 1974. 21 : La forme de la courtoisie, cest la sagesse. Or, ce qui fait le fond de la sagesse, la norme laquelle se conforment tous les aspects de la conduite du sage, cest ce que les philosophes er les moralistes saccordent appeler la mesure. See also Ronald Martinez. La sacra fame delloro (Purgatorio 22, 41) tra Virgilio e Stazio: dal testo allinterpretazione. Letture classensi 18 (1989): 177-185. 441 Conv. IV.ix.10. This image of human will as a horse also used in the context of love poetry in Dantes times. See for instance Francesco da Barberino. I documenti damore. Regula XLIIJ. Dante also applies the metaphor of the knight and the horse to the poet and the volgare illustre: only the best poets should use the volgare illustre, just as the best horses should be reserved for the best knights. On this point, see Robert Durling. The Audience(s) of the De vulgari eloquentia and the Petrose. In Dante Studies 110 (1992): 28. 442 Ronald Martinez. The Paradiso and the Monarchia. In Dante. The Divine Comedy: Paradiso. Ed. Robert Durling and Ronald Martinez. Oxford: Oxford UP, forthcoming. Emphasis mine.

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querimus vulgare illustre.443 If we formalize Dantes argument in this passage, we obtain exactly what Gramsci asserts about Caesarism. In a situation of conflict between A and B, C is the arbitrating power, needed to bring A and B out of their vicious opposition. The authoritative function incorporated by Dante is not only to impose a rule from above detached from factual examples, but also to arbitrate among linguistic conflicts and lead toward a form of linguistic concordia discors. This arbitration leads to equate the diverse idioms into a common sphere, that is, the sphere of the inferior vulgar languages. But Dante is careful to make sure that we understand that his judgments are not motivated by a municipal love for his own city of Florence. His judgments are balanced through the use of reason: rationi magis quam sensui spatula nostri iudicii podiamus. 444 In this respect, the poet acts out as a judge, an arbiter of the diverse, and an equable agent.445 As Martha Nussbaum emphasized, the notion of poet-judge as equable man rests in a tradition of thought about legal and judicial reasoning that stretches directly back to Aristotle, who developed a normative conception of equitable judgment to take place of an excessively simple or reductive reliance on abstract general principle.446 In referring to Dante, we should point out that, in judging the diverse idioms, Dante deprives them of their own authority and sovereignty and stabilizes his new
443

Dve I.xiv.8. Emphasis mine. Cos a tutti i volgari che fanno la loro comparsa in giudizio in questo capitolo noi rilasciamo questa sentenza arbitrale, che n il romagnolo, n il dialetto che gli si oppone nei modi che si son detti, n il veneziano rappresentano il volgare illustre che cerchiamo. The English translation proposes I pronounce the following verdict for arbitramur. Verdict does not provide us with the same sense of agency Dante expresses with the verb to arbitrate. 444 Dve I.vi.3. 445 I borrow these expressions from Martha Nussbaums study on poetic justice, which draws heavily on Walt Whitmans view of the poet-judge. See Martha Nussbaum. Poetic Justice. 80.

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authority among/upon them. In other words, in describing the vernacular idioms of Italy he equates them as non-illustrious languages, Dante both marks his equitable judgment and aims at establishing his own leadership among the diverse and dispersed vulgares gentes. By drawing a linguistic map of Italy and judging all the fourteen vernacular idioms to be equally inferior languages with respect to the illustrious one, Dante dispossesses the linguistic autonomy of each particular idiom and aims at asserting his own arbitrating authority over them. 447 Thus, at a micro-logical level, through the general strategy of arbitration, authority is displaced and renewed. In this context, the illustrious language works as a balance, a unit of measurement that can help the poet to establish an equitable judgment and the concordia discors among the scattered and confused speeches of the scattered vulgar people(s) inhabiting Italy. As pointed out in Monarchia I.xvi.4-5, est enim concordia uniformis motus plurium voluntatum. In my view, in Dantes dream for concordia resounds the notion of common consent used in Dve I.vii to distinguish the notion of vulgare from that of gramatica. As we have seen in the third chapter, the vernacular idioms are unstable because they are continuously affected by the diverse arbitration of individual wills (singulari arbitri). Therefore, in Dantes attempt to establish a new doctrine of language and
446 447

Ibid. To understand Dantes hope of emanating authority over the vulgares gentes it is worth to highlight the point made by Walt Withman that the poet judges not as the judge judges but as the sun falling round a helpless thing. See Nussbaum. Poetic Justice. 80. Indeed, as implied in Justinians reply to the pilgrim in Par. 6.111-117, the divine judgment is like the emanation of the rays coming from the picciola stella of the true love. Under the linguistic perspective of the Dve, the illustrious vernacular language emanates around the disaggregated Italy as a gratiosus lumen rationis. Both justice and the illustrious vernacular, for the poet-judge Dante are emanations of grace and love, the love that Par. 33 will finally recognize (re-viewing Aristotles Metaphysics under a Christian horizon) as the driving force that moves the entire cosmos.

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eloquence, temporality is a key dimension. Indeed, the notion of linguistic mutability, which, both in Dve and Par. 26, for Dante characterizes all vernacular languages, induces his readers to accept as normal the fact that the diverse vernacular idioms are not stable and eternal but that they can be transformed in the same manner of human behavior and customs. This general meta-linguistic principle not only represents a universal theory of the vernacular, but also works as an operative idea apt to generate the theoretical condition of possibility needed to justify Dantes labor in transforming a variety of vernacular forms into a new, unifying, illustrious language. As we know from both Conv. I.xiii.6, Dante had conceived two poetic elements as linguistic stabilizers and harmonizers, the number of syllables and the musical rhythms of rhymes. 448 In this respect, poetry is the mode of production through which harmony and stability is created among diverse linguistic elements. 449 Thus, Dantes work aimed precisely at providing stability to the vernacular language, which is an unstable and variable idiom if compared to the gramatica produced through the common consent of various ancient people(s). If so, Dante seems to be aware that besides the harmonization and stabilization of the vernacular through poetry, he had to search for a
448

Conv. I.xiii.6. Ciascuna cosa studia naturalmente a la sua conservazione: onde, se lo volgare per s studiare potesse, studierebbe a quella; e quella sarebbe, acconciare s a pi stabilitade, e pi stabilitade non potrebbe avere che in legar s con numero e con rime. E questo medesimo studio stato mio, s some tanto palese che non dimanda testimonianza. Emphasis mine. 449 In this respect, etymology helps us to reinforce the link between ethics and poetry in Dante. Indeed, as Harald Weinrich remarked, there is a linguistic link between the ethical term temperanza and the noun tempus as musical rhythm. In prossimit fonetica di tempus non troviamo soltanto il verbo temptare con il senso somatico indicato, ma anche il verbo temperare. [...] Luso del verbo temperare ha conservato soprattutto significati astratti relazionati alla virt cardinale della temperanza. Ma il senso primitivo di questo verbo pi concreto, pi corporeo e ci guida, una volta di pi, verso il campo della ritmica e della metrica (qui con una sfumatura particolare di musica). Troviamo nei dizionari attestazioni di questo verbo come acuta cum gravibus temperans (Cicerone) o Musam temperare, comporre un poema, una canzone (Orazio). La temperanza viene dunque, tramite i piaceri dellarmonia, da un ritmo musicale. Harald Weinrich. Il polso del tempo. Ed. Federico Bertoni. Firenze: La Nuova Italia, 1999. 12. Emphasis mine.

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common consent in order to validate his linguistic project. One might hypothesize that the project of the Comedy aims at reaching this common consent among the moderni.450 In this sense, the prophetic imagination Dante injects through the uses of future tenses in the textual structure of his works is particularly significant. 451 All these future tenses are not simply aimed to convey an absolute Truth, but work as vectors in the form of language, through which Dante attempts to lead his readers to imagine a horizon of expectations in which he himself as a poet and, thus, his poetry and his language have finally achieved glory, fame, prestige, i.e. a cultural hegemony. From this perspective, imperialism is an ideological vector that Dante requires for dealing with the historical present (i.e. his own modern times). In turn, cultural hegemony, or, with a pre-modern term, glory452 is what Dante aimed for in order to make his voice vital nutrition and redirect the dispersed vulgares gentes toward concordia.
450 451

I am using the term in the way Dante did in Dve I.vii.7-8. Among the numerous expressions of prophetic future tenses one can recall Rusticuccis address se la fama dopo te luca (Inf. 16.64-68); Cacciaguidas verses, coscienza fusca / o della propria o dellaltrui vergogna / pur sentir la tua parola brusca... / Ch se la voce tua sar molesta, / nel primo gusto, vital nutrimento / lascer poi, quando sar digesta... / Questo tuo grido far come vento (Par. 17.124-125); or the caccer in Inf. 1 and the one in Purg. 11; or the sar luce nuova, sole nuovo... in Convivio. Dantes message is metaphorized as parola brusca, voce, and grido. Although Dantes works, on first being heard, would seem harsh, upon being assimilated, they would nourish his audience with sound teaching. 452 Dante refers to glory in numerous contexts, for dealing with the glory of the language in Purg. 11, the ethical-political glory to which the eagle refers in Par. 19.13-15 (per esser giusto e pio / son io qui essaltato a quella gloria / che non si lascia vincere a disio), and the spiritual one in Par. 27, which follows Dantes encounter with Adam.

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